Hank Powell 1955 HGS BELOVED TEACHER AND COACH
Hank Powell 1955 HGS, P ’04, a well-loved teacher and coach at Hopkins for more than 20 years, passed away on July 9, 2022. Hank was among a special group of alumni who returned to their alma mater as faculty members. He entered Hopkins in the eighth grade with the support of the Lineaweaver Scholarship. As a student, Hank excelled in many areas. He was Managing Editor of the Pantagraph , a Razor staff member, Captain of the Varsity Fencing team (a sport he later coached at Hopkins), and a member of the Varsity Football and Track teams, as well as a singer in the Harmonaires. After graduating from Yale in 1959, Hank spent three years in the U.S. Army, after which he embarked on a career of scholarship, teaching, and coaching, earning master’s degrees from Yale and NYU and a Ph.D. in English Literature from UNC at Chapel Hill. In 1987, more than 30 years after graduating from Hopkins, Hank returned to the Hill, where he taught English, led a reading program, and shared his skill and passion for fencing as a coach, leading the Hopkins team, which included his son, John ’04, to numerous state championships. The team was a source of great pride for Hank, and he continued to coach it past his 2008 retirement, until 2013. “Hank was the epitome of a coach who recognized the potential of his athletes and pushed them to succeed,” said Hopkins alumna and faculty member Emilie Waters Harris ’06. “He cared deeply about developing athletes who demonstrated good sportsmanship and represented Hopkins fencing in collegiate fencing.” In his teaching, Hank passed along his deep love of literature to generations of students, who remember his classes as forums for discussion and laughter. “Teaching here has been everything I’d hoped for,” Hank said in a 2002 story in Views from the Hill about alumni who had returned to Hopkins as faculty. He added that being able to see his son succeed was a highlight of his tenure. “Watching him thrive among some wonderful classmates is enough by itself to have made the trip back to Hopkins worthwhile,” he said. “It makes my main feeling about this place one of gratitude.” Hank was predeceased by his brother, James Wesley Powell 1956 HGS, and is survived by his wife, Margaret Ketchum Powell; his son, John Setian Powell ’04; his daughter-in-law, Brittany Elizabeth Powell; and many nieces and nephews.
VIEWS FROM THE HILL | 2023 • ISSUE 1
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