For years, Hank Hodges has been driven by a willingness to work hard and a passion for helping others.
Hodges began working for Staplcotn as an assistant office boy in 1939 while attending Greenwood High School. He didn't know much about cotton or business, but he knew about work.
"I sold papers when I was a little kid, and magazines, and any kind of odd jobs that were available," he said. "I had to be doing something."
He went on to hold every office at Staplcotn and Stapldiscount, serving as Staplcotn president from 1978 until his retirement in 1986. He watched the cotton marketing company grow into a world-renowned business.
Along the way, he also focused on contributing to the community. He founded Beacon Harbor, which offers developmentally disabled adults a place to stay and work, and he has served as an advocate for the handicapped in other capacities. Hodges' son, Bob, was born with cerebral palsy.
Vicki Webb, residence home manager at Beacon Harbor, said Hank Hodges has dedicated a large part of his life to helping others inside and outside that facility.
"There are not enough words to say what a great man Mr. Hodges is, in many ways," she said. "He cares as much for each and every individual out here as he does for his own."
Hodges views his service simply.
"I think God gives us gifts and he gives us opportunities," he said. "I think Bob was my gift, and I think this whole thing is an opportunity to try and help others."
For that spirit and for his service record, the Commonwealth honors Hodges with the 2005 Community Service Award, which is presented annually in conjunction with the Profile edition.
Hodges, 81, was born in Coila and moved to Greenwood in his early teens. He began working for Staplcotn during summer school when he was 16, running errands.
His work impressed W.M. Garrard, the general manager, and the personnel director asked whether he wanted to keep working there. When he said yes, he was promoted to full-time office boy. He moved up to assistant traffic manager, then assistant treasurer, then secretary-treasurer, then president of Stapldiscount, then president of Staplcotn.
"We built that organization from an almost-losing proposition back to its original history as the largest and strongest cotton marketing company in the world," he said.
Hodges said cotton and farming weren't a big part of his early life - "My father had a farm, but I didn't know anything about it" - but he was quickly impressed by the people at Staplcotn. "The leadership there, they were the leadership of the Delta," he said.
He also praised Garrard for encouraging him to help others. "He taught me the value of human beings," Hodges recalled.
Before Hodges became president, Staplcotn went through some difficult times, having diversified into cattle, fertilizer and other fields. Under his leadership, the company closed its cattle operation and sold its chemical division, fertilizer division and some other assets.
"We had lost a great deal of money," he said. "And I was so pleased that the board had confidence in me and gave me an opportunity to take it over and bring it back."
Hodges ascended to other leadership positions while working in the cotton industry, including serving as president of Cotton Council International. He is a former chairman of AMCOT Inc., a cotton sales organization.
He also had business interests in oil, wood products, insurance and a number of farm operations.
Hodges retired from Staplcotn in 1986 at the age of 62.
"They had to find somebody real good to take my place, and they found Woods Eastland," Hodges said. "And he's done a much better job than I was doing."
Eastland said Hodges had a lot to do with the company's growth. Hodges presided over the company's switch to the Mill Sales Program, and "that's been what's driven the success of the company ever since then," Eastland said.
Eastland recalled that Hodges faced some tough decisions in trying to streamline operations. But after the company returned to its core focus, it grew tremendously, and "by the time he left, he had a very efficient company operating very effectively," Eastland said.
He said Hodges' track record also illustrates what kind of character he has. "He was very successful in what he did here, and I don't think that happens unless people trust you," Eastland said.
Hodges said he enjoys meeting people, and this came in handy in his Staplcotn travels, which took him all over the world.
He made many good friends in textile mills, in the cotton-buying group in Memphis and in New Orleans, where
Staplcotn's exporting was based. As the company's reach grew, he traveled to many other countries as part of merchandising and sales efforts.
His wife of 57 years, Jean, went on many of these trips, to places including Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, England, Germany, France and Switzerland. "I was really lucky to tag along," she said.
Not only that, he said, but having her around probably helped business. When Staplcotn was trying to establish a market in Egypt, the two of them visited that nation's minister of agriculture. He was so excited to see an American woman that he gave her paintings and other items he had created himself, Hodges said.
"When we walked in, that old man went berserk," he said.
"People don't realize it, but if your wife is with you, you get into a lot of places that you wouldn't get in, and you get recognition at a lot of places," he continued. "I think the reason we got that market opened in Egypt was because Jean was with me."
Hodges gave credit to his son Bob - "the joy of our life" - for inspiring him to help others.
"God gave us a wonderful gift: He gave us a handicapped son," Hodges said.
At the time Beacon Harbor opened, there was nothing else like it in the state. Hank and Jean Hodges had taken Bob to hospitals in Jackson and Vicksburg and to an eminent cerebral palsy expert in Maryland. But the treatments couldn't help him walk, and the family was frustrated.
For a time, before the schools offered special-education programs, he attended a school his parents helped create, which was housed first at St. John's United Methodist Church and then at Little Red Schoolhouse.
When Hank and Jean Hodges heard the VFW club on U.S. 82 was going bankrupt, Mrs. Hodges suggested putting in a workshop for young people. She got together $79,000 to buy the 10.5 acres of land, and the building was made into a specialty place where the handicapped could do small projects, mainly repetitive tasks.
The center's name came from what Jean Hodges said the place should be - "a beacon of love and a harbor of hope."
Beacon Harbor was chartered as a nonprofit corporation in 1981. Its residents have done work for Staplcotn, Viking Range Corp. and other employers, as well as produce Christmas cards each year.
"It gave them a life, gave them something to do," Hodges said.
Still, they were concerned about where Bob would live. Then Jean Hodges got the idea of building homes for the handicapped.
The first Beacon Harbor home, which could house six male residents, was completed in 1984 with the help of HUD money. After it did well, they built one for 12 women and two houseparents that was completed in 1987.
For the third home, they received help from an unexpected source. Mimi Bassett, an heir to the Bassett Furniture fortune and the sister-in-law of one of Hodges' Texas business associates, got to know Bob Hodges and developed great affection for him.
"Mimi never saw Beacon Harbor, but we told her about it, and we took pictures down there because they all were so interested in Bob," Hank Hodges said.
Later, with no notice, they received a certificate for hundreds of shares of Bassett Furniture stock, which had been transferred to Beacon Harbor. Six months later, more shares came.
When they finally sold the stock, it brought $350,000. In Bassett's honor, the third home, completed in 1990, was named the Mimi Bassett Home.
Now 30 people live in the three homes at no cost. "I think it's changed a lot of people's attitudes about handicapped individuals," Hodges said.
Vicki Webb agrees. The community has accepted Beacon Harbor and its residents, and Hodges' efforts in public relations had a lot to do with that, she said. "I feel this town gives these people opportunities to participate in everything they want to," Webb said.
Hodges also has spoken up for others through the state mental health program.
When the program was started, Leflore County Supervisor Ray Tribble asked him to be chairman for Region VI, which included Leflore County and seven other counties. Hodges continued to serve until last year.
Life Help and Beacon Harbor also developed a good collaborative relationship. The mental health facilities were used to give psychiatric and psychological help to the handicapped at Beacon Harbor, and Life Help rented a Beacon Harbor building to use as a Life Help Industries workshop.
"What we've tried to do through the years is to use all the practical resources we have here to help other people," Hodges said. "We've tried to set an example for other people to do similar things, but not many people want to do anything. I don't think people are selfish; I think they just can't see a big picture of need."
Madolyn Smith, executive director of Life Help, said Hodges' knowledge of business and finance has been a big asset to the center.
He has made difficult decisions when needed, and he has helped keep the center solvent at a time when Medicaid funding is uncertain, she said. "Because of his guidance and foresight, we're not going to suffer as much as some places might, and therefore our clients won't suffer as much," she said.
Smith said Hodges is fair toward others and shows great compassion for the developmentally disabled and those with serious mental illness. "He's taught me a lot, and I have a lot of respect for him," she said.
And, she added, "he really doesn't do it to get attention or make himself look good."
Although Hodges has been retired for a while, he still believes in keeping busy.
"You have to," he said. "It keeps you young. You get out of life what you put in it - and if you're going to sit in the corner, you don't get anything out of it."
Webb said Hodges visits Beacon Harbor nearly every day and is always asking how he can help.
"If he says, 'What can I do?' or 'How can I help?' it could be anything," she said.
Bob Hodges is now 52 years old. The Hodges' other son, Bill, is a counselor in Hattiesburg.
Hank Hodges said he considered moving to Texas at one time years ago, since he had a home there and farmed there. Ultimately, he said, "I've never seen an offer of any amount of money that would cause me to want to leave here.
"Money's not important," he said. "It was here when we got here, and it's going to be here when we're gone. It's what you do with it that's important - and we've tried to invest ours in helping others."
