Parents, students, former colleagues, friends and school officials remember Hilldale High School football coach and math teacher Don Hendrix for his integrity and his faith.

Hendrix, who was hired by Hilldale in 2002, died Tuesday of an apparent heart attack. He was 54.

“The district is just shocked,” Hilldale School Superintendent D.B. Merrill said. “He was a great individual, a great man. It is a tremendous loss to our school system, and our prayers are with his family.”

Merrill said school officials are trying to help students deal with the news.

Students and staff at the high school were hushed Tuesday morning as the news sunk in. Several teachers and administrators had tears in their eyes.

Sheila Rolland, mother of former Hilldale quarterback Lance Rolland, recalled when Hendrix came to her son’s baptism.

“I don’t think you can have a better man or a better coach,” Rolland said. “He let his Christian life shine through, even in his coaching. He was a great role model for the kids. Lance thought the world of him.”

Former Hilldale Board of Education member Eldon Schoonover said Hendrix “always had a smile on his face.”

Schoonover said his daughter had Hendrix for a Sunday School teacher at First Baptist Church. He said the lessons he taught were “to treat people with kindness.”

“I was impressed with the ways he handled his football players,” he said. “He was demanding, but he also loved his players.”

Hilldale senior Cade Brownell said Hendrix “always included his faith in everything he did.”

“It showed in the way he dealt with problems,” Brownell said.

Hendrix taught pre-algebra, trigonometry and calculus. Brownell said Hendrix taught him in past years.

“He wanted us to have integrity in the work we did and to do our best,” he said.

“You couldn’t ask for a better man,” said former Hilldale High School Principal Dewayne Pemberton. “He was a good, solid teacher. You could go into his class at any time, and Don was up at the board teaching kids. He didn’t slack off.”

Pemberton, now an assistant principal at Muskogee High School, said even some of his colleagues at MHS are “just devastated.”

“He passed away suddenly, but we knew there was some concern with his heart,” he said. “I remember he had talked a few times about cutting back.”

Longtime friend Pat Orman said Hendrix was building a log cabin east of Fort Gibson.

Orman attended Fort Gibson High School with Hendrix, who was valedictorian of the Class of 1973.

“When I was in school, we all had fun, but we always knew Don was the smartest in the class,” she said. “His dad was a principal of the high school. The rest of us got by with the skin of our teeth, but we always knew Don was going to pass the test.”

Now a receiving clerk at Fort Gibson Schools, Orman said, “Every time I’d see Don when we played Hilldale, he’d come up and hug me.”

Services for Hendrix are 10 a.m. Friday at First Baptist Church under the direction of Bradley Funeral Service of Fort Gibson.

Reach Cathy Spaulding at 918-684-2928 or Click Here to Send Email