'God Bless the old hog farmer' WATCH THE VIDEO

A silent snow fell outside the campus of Southern State Community College in Hillsboro Saturday, as family, friends, colleagues and students assembled to honor "an old hog farmer" whose legacy of learning, integrity and commitment to community lives on through the thousands of lives he touched.

From humble roots on a farm in the Sugar Tree Ridge area, Bill Horne, who died Dec. 1, became a man who inspired those around him, through his actions and his lectures, calling education "the great equalizer." He worked to constantly remind people that "one person can make a difference."

With ease, Horne could address the world on global events, beginning his thoughts with a simple, "Folks ..."

Charles Gorman, a faculty member at SSCC and a friend of Horne's, said that it was a day "to celebrate Bill's life," and he invited family, fellow faculty members, students and friends to stand and share stories. Gorman followed up the invitation by saying, "If you knew Bill, most of his students were also friends."

"Bill will be sadly missed by all who knew him," Gorman said. "But he will not quickly be forgotten. A line from 'The Human Comedy' says it best. 'I am not going to comfort you, he said. I know I can't. Nothing can. But try to remember that a good man can never die. You will see your brother man time and time again, in the streets, at home, in all places of the town.' And I might add, at The Rocks. And in the woods. On the farm. 'The person of man goes. But the best of him stays. Yes, it stays forever.'"

SSCC Professor Rainee Angles read Horne's last column for The Highland County Press, written just hours before he died. In it, Horne encouraged his readers to "make a memory" because "You can't take it with you."

Angles said that Horne's final column was "for our souls." Horne's final written words challenged his readers to look back over the past year and remember five days, five days when a memory was made. Knowing that most people probably couldn't, he encourages them to go live and to "make a memory."

Horne concluded the column with, "The last thought, is you and I are solely responsible for the attitudes of the people around us. This is just a thought for each of us to contemplate. Please remember, I warned you."

Teacher and friend Carol Shull read from Ecclesiastes 3, beginning with, "To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die."

For those who knew Horne, a fan of found Native American artifacts and geology, who often distributed rocks he had collected and polished himself, the passage was especially poignant with the words, "A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together."

Horne's brother, Jim Horne later spoke, saying that he always referred to him as "my brother Bill. Everybody does that with their siblings. But I noticed a few years ago my brother and I always did that. For my part, it was because I was really proud to call him my brother."

Jim Horne said his brother was 11 years older than he was, but he remembered the first time he had a moment when he felt truly proud of his brother was when he was having trouble with some bullies at school. 

"If it was somebody my age, he told me what I was supposed to," Jim said. "If it was somebody older, it just ... went away after he took care of it. t;

The next moment he recalled was when he was 16 and his brother Bill, 27, was in the Army, after having been drafted, and he brought home trophies for "Most Outstanding Enlistment."

Jim Horne struggled with maintaining his composure, as did many people in the audience at Southern State's Edward K. Daniels Auditorium. 

"Reflecting back, I can remember we had a lot of good times," Jim Horne said. "But I sat thinking yesterday ... the article ... and the timing ... and the content. I couldn't help but kick myself a little, about 'shoulda, wouldas, didn'ts. But then I remembered, I didn't have those facts last week. But I have it now. So, what do you do? Just what he said. You move forward. So I read his article again. I couldn't remember five days in 2010. So that's my New Year's resolution. I'm going to remember at least five days. And if they're not good days for me, great days for me, like he wanted them to be, things that didn't happen to me, I want them to at least be good days for somebody else. Cause that's the way he'd live them."

Bill Horne's father-in-law spoke highly of his character, saying, "Bill didn't measure his friends by their wealth or their political party. He measured them by their character, desire to learn, desire to be a good friend and a good neighbor and contribute to society ... Today, what I want to do is very simple. I want to thank you, Bill Horne, for giving my daughter lasting and loving memories. The best memories of her life. I want to thank you for creating those memories, Bill, the types of memories you were possibly referring to when you wrote your last article a few days ago."

A childhood friend, Sam Snyder, spoke of his 60-year friendship with Horne. He told stories of their younger years, including "running wild" on their bikes on the backroads of Sugar Tree Ridge, swimming in a pond in February and hunting for arrowheads and Indian artifacts in the corn fields of their farm. Snyder said that around 50 years ago he found an arrow head that was "perfect," and he was so proud to be able to give it to Bill. Snyder said that about two years ago, Horne gave the arrowhead back, saying that when it was first found they were unaware of how valuable it really was. 

"He said, 'I want you to have this.' I said, 'Bill, I gave it to you. You've had it for 50 years,'" Snyder said. 

Horne came up with a solution, he said, with Horne agreeing to take it back if Snyder passed away first.

Snyder paused for a long moment then said, "And if he passed on before I did, that I would keep the rock. So, at this time, I would like to say, 'Thanks, Bill, for the arrowhead, and thanks for 60 years of friendship."

Horne's friend and SSCC instructor Ken Shull then took to the podium, and brought some laughs to the crowd when he said to Gorman, "You stand right here so that if I start sobbing like a girly man you can pat me on the back.

"Bill was an advocate for the little people, the underdogs, the downtrodden," Shull said, and his voice cracked as he pointed to Jim Horne, "who couldn't defend themselves against the bullies of the world, Jim."

Shull said that Horne had recently confided in him that he had achieved everything that he wanted to do in his life, "with hard work and perseverance," with one exception. Shull said that anyone who knew Horne was aware that he passionately wanted to be elected to represent area residents as Ohio's 86th District Representative, an office for which he unsuccessfully ran five times. 

"So I am hopeful that in heaven a Democrat can get elected," Shull said, pausing for uproarious laughter from the crowd. "Because there's no chance in hell in Highland County."

Director of Southern State's South Campus Peggy Chalker said that Horne saw the potential in each student that came into his classroom, and he challenged them to live up to that potential. 

"He saw their brilliance," she said. "He saw where they were lagging behind. He found the broken wings, and he gave them encouragement, he gave them opportunities, quietly, in his own way."

Chalker said that Horne once discovered that a student was living in a cardboard box behind a hotel, with no financial means of improving that situation. He was able to quickly and quietly, with assistance from his colleagues, make sure that student was given a better opportunity. 

"They came together to change someone's life," Chalker said. "He did that over and over."

One of Horne's students later spoke, and through tears she said that not only she, but her daughter as well, had the privilege of having Horne as a teacher. 

"Bill made a big difference in my life," she said. "He made me realize that one person, no matter how much money you didn't have, and how much status you didn't have, could make a difference ."

Referencing Horne's strict adherence to shopping from local merchants and buying American-made products, she said, "And to this day, whenever I walk into Walmart I have this horrible guilt come over me."

At Horne's own request, Gorman gave the final words of the eulogy, calling Bill Don Quixote to Gorman's own Sancho Panza.

"Bill Horne was my friend," Gorman said. "When Bill Horne counts you as a friend you enjoy undying loyalty, unconditional acceptance, and sometimes - no, lots of times - uncomfortably blatant honesty whether you want it or not. Bill was a good man who strove to make this world a better place. He was a rebel with a cause. Bill was my man from La Mancha, accepting he chose knowingly the windmills to fight.

"So I close with an apropos quote," Gorman said. "'For me, alone, Don Quixote was born. And I for him. His was the power of action. Mine, of writing.' I enjoyed writing and reading things to you about the Old Hog Farmer. God bless The Old Hog Farmer."