Dr. Joseph and Dorothy Schickel
Dr. JoAnn Hilliker wanted to establish this scholarship fund in memory of her parents, Dr. Joseph Schickel and Mrs. Dorothy Thrasher Schickel. This fund assists students that graduated from Cumberland County High School, in Burkesville, KY. Students also must be majoring in the College of Health and Human Sciences degree program at Western Kentucky University.
Dr. Hilliker was raised in Burkesville, Cumberland County, Kentucky. She attended grade and high school in the Cumberland County school system before going on to University of Kentucky for a B.S. degree in home economics. She continued for a M.S. degree at the University of Wisconsin-Madison before taking an instructor teaching position at Western Kentucky University. An important part of her experiences in Cumberland County was the 4- H program supported by the Kentucky Cooperative Extension and UK. She had not been at WKU long before UK Extension recruited her for a position at Clothing and Textile Specialist. In that role she developed educational programs for adults and 4-H club members. She loved working with the adult learners and kids.
After a few years it was apparent that to succeed in the university environment, a PH.D was needed. She selected The Ohio State University with an emphasis in Social Psychology of Clothing and Appearance with a minor in Consumer Behavior. At OSU she met and married Alden Hilliker from Vermont. Alden had grown up with similar experiences with 4-H and Future Farmers of America (FFA) but in another culture. She followed him to Florida where he had a faculty position on the state 4-H staff. (1944-1997) Jo Ann held several “trailing spouse” positions at the University of Florida such as Director of Office of Conferences for Agriculture, In- Service Educator for Department of AG and Extension Ed and as a District Director of Agriculture Extension programs in 17 North Florida Counties.
In retirement she continued breeding and competing with her Basset Hounds. She and Alden used to joke that they were cheaper than cows. Her hounds won many awards in conformation, obedience, agility, hunting and field trial. Two of her hounds won the Basset Hound Club of America National Field Trial.
The hounds and Jo Ann are now both enjoying retirement. Jo Ann is able to travel widely and continue her education on cultural diversity. After a career in universities in either teaching, research, or extension (cooperative or agriculture), she would not hesitate to say the best advice she received from one of her teachers was “It is not how much money you make, it is how much you spent.”