By KAITLIN MULLINS

DAILY LEADER Staff Writer

Norma Jean and Miller Hamill are high school sweethearts who have a combined 100 years of experience in the field of education.

“I’m a Loyd Star High School guy and she’s a West Lincoln girl, you know, we met in junior high,” Miller said. “We dated all through high school and married 52 years ago this November.”

The two attended Copiah-Lincoln Community College together before going on to get their bachelor’s degrees at the University of Southern Mississippi, during which time they were married. Later, they got master’s together at Ole Miss.

The two have shared a career field as long as they’ve been married, each having 50 years of teaching or administrative experience. Miller said God has blessed them with so many great years in such a meaningful vocation that they both embraced at 20 years old. Most of their time was spent at Pearl River Community College, where Norma Jean taught biological sciences for 32 years and Miller was head basketball coach before he was dean of Student Affairs, totaling 34 years.

For Miller, he was led by example.

“I had a real strong desire to teach,” he said. “Also, one of the math teachers at Loyd Star was very a influential instructor, Ms. Archie Fike. She taught math and math was my favorite subject. Her husband coached, and I fell into a love for math as well as coaching and went into that area. I coached for almost 10 years when I first started.”

His career coaching basketball included one year at his alma mater, when he taught junior high basketball from 1963 to 1964.

Norma Jean said she went into teaching at a time when it was one of very few career options for women.

“When I was growing up, as far as females, pretty much the only two choices were to either be a nurse or a school teacher,” she said. “There were not all of the choices you have now. Maybe secretary work, but if you went to get a college degree it was pretty much nursing or teaching. Most women were majoring in home economics.”

She said her high school principal advised her not to follow suit, and there were very few women studying biological sciences. Norma Jean said there were science classes in which she was the only female, a far cry from the numbers of today.

The Hamills said over the years, the student body has become more diverse. This is especially true in community colleges. Miller said community colleges were filled mostly with students right out of high school up until around the mid-80s, when there was a huge increase in non-traditional students.

“That was a vital role that the community college played in our state, and still plays,” Miller said. “There’s a tremendous number of programs now for students to be retrained and also many of them are going into tech programs as well academic programs to be educated in the later years of their life.”

Miller said the stigma that community colleges are not as superior as four-year universities is one that is fading away, for good reason.

“I think some of the best teachers and the best education I ever got was at Co-Lin,” he said. “I think you’d find that students that attend Southwest or Pearl River would say the same thing. I think that theory or that misconception has been overcome in the last several years because so many more students transfer to the university, and not only do they transfer, but their academic accomplishments are as good or better as the ones who start at the university.”

Both Hamills said the key to being a good educator, as in life and commanded by God, is to treat students as you would like to be treated.

“I have always treated every student with respect, and I think in turn I’ve been treated with respect. I let them know I care about them,” Norma Jean said.

“If you’re honest and fair and consistent and treat them the same, they’ll respect you,” Miller said. “I think a lot of young educators, and even people in our society, are concerned about being popular with people instead of being respected by people.

“And there’s a lot of difference between respect and popularity,” he said. “I don’t think that’ll ever change.” The Hamills, now back in their home of Brookhaven, are now both retired. Norma Jean retired last month after teaching at Southwest Community College and Copiah-Lincoln. After Miller retired from Pearl River, he served as headmaster at Brookhaven Academy for four and a half years. He taught high school math part-time at Bogue Chitto Attendance Center and Parklane Academy before retiring last year.

They look forward to spending more time with their favorite pupils, their six grandchildren.