YOUR STORY MATTERS HERE: Ron Hogue

By Tim Wesley

Ask Ron Hogue what he likes most about his job and you’ll get a quick answer.

“I love helping people and seeing them learn something new or do something better,” he said.  “It’s a great feeling to be improving peoples’ lives, even if it’s in a microscopic way.”

In his nearly 25-year career, Ron’s jobs have been connected like the branches of a tree:  He’s an educator, a teacher, a trainer, a helper.  He traces the roots back to a couple adult mentors from his youth, Amos Mazzant and Jay Wiley.  At the time, perhaps neither realized the seeds they were planting, but they must have detected some fertile ground.

Mr. Mazzant was “strict,” the bane of any sixth-grader, including Ron at the time.

“That was the impression students had,” Ron said.  “So I remember being pretty disappointed when I heard he would be my homeroom teacher.  But then it turned out he just had high expectations for his students, and he pushed all of us to be better people.”

After recognizing Ron’s aptitude in math, Mr. Mazzant pushed him toward the accelerated track, a nudge of encouragement that had an effect far beyond the classroom.

“Until then, I had felt like a pretty average kid,” he said.  “But at that point I had somebody I respected look at me and say that I had more potential than I saw in myself.  He really changed my perspective; that was life-changing for me, and he’s probably the primary reason I became an educator.”

Fast-forward a few years into a Sunday school class for high school students, with Mr. Wiley doing the planting.  Most weeks, Ron was the only kid in class.

“He knew that I would probably be the only one there, but he would prepare as if the room would be full of kids,” he said.  “He gave his best effort in a Christ-like setting, and he invested a lot in me.”

A 1992 graduate of Lincoln High School in Ellwood City – the same high school from which his mom and her dad graduated – Ron initially began studying electrical engineering but soon realized it wasn’t for him.  He left school and worked at a comic book store for two years then Wal-Mart for another year before aiming for a career in education.

The investments by Mr. Mazzant and Mr. Wiley began bearing fruit, in a professional sense, after Ron graduated from Southeastern University in 1998 with an education degree and took a teaching job at a Christian school.  With a salary of $14,700, he found a second job at a pizza shop to make ends meet. 

After working 16-hour days for a while, he accepted a computer position with Axicon Technologies and later interviewed with Sarah Nichols for a job at Sylvan Learning.  Sarah offered him the job, with Ron reporting to her.  They eventually started dating then got married, and they now have two sons, Sam, 17, and Timothy, 13.  The Hogue family has been a pillar at Dutilh for many years, with Sarah attending the church since the age of two and serving in a variety of staff roles, currently as director of children’s ministry.  For their part, the boys regularly participate in church activities, from youth group to worship services.

As Ron’s teaching and training career progressed, he joined New Horizons Computer Learning Centers, then moved to Eaton, Zenith Technologies and Avere Systems.  Along the way, he developed a specialty in Microsoft software and technology, so when Microsoft bought Avere in 2018, he found a home with the new parent company.  Today, he’s a program manager and trains customers on complex storage technologies used for high-performance computing workloads.  The company’s customers include financial institutions, genomics researchers, Hollywood-based visual effects providers, and government institutions such as NASA, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Library of Congress.  The stakes are high and the training material is complex, which places a premium on his ability to not just understand the company’s products but communicate their features clearly.

“We work with highly specialized people on highly technical stuff, so just understanding the technology is a big task,” he said.  “And when we’re communicating about it, you have to really find the sweet spot where you’re not speaking over or under somebody, but meeting people where they are, based on their technical understanding.  I get stumped every time with questions, but as a teacher you have to be ok with that.  I have to find out the answer and that helps me to learn something, too.  You will never know all the answers, so you have to be a life-long learner.  When you think you have it all figured out, that’s the beginning of the end.”

No matter his employer or his specific role, Ron has stayed focused on the roots of his profession:  To teach and to help.  While at New Horizons, for example, one of his students needed to earn a certification to retain her job. 

“I felt a real responsibility to help her, and after two weeks she received the certification and kept her job,” he said.

He also feels a responsibility to live out his Christian faith at work, whether that means participating in a Bible study with a few co-workers, serving as part of a community outreach team, or being a leader in the company’s Employee Resource Group, which is focused on diversity and inclusion.

“We try to show people they are welcome; no matter what color, how you identify, we appreciate you,” he said.

At Dutilh, meanwhile, Ron also stays active in a variety of roles, focused on the youth group and youth band.  He relishes hanging out with the kids because he can act like a kid himself.

“I like being able to be immature, to be a goofball around the kids,” he said.  “I appreciate being able to feel like a kid, to be silly and have fun.”

Like the time he was cast as a rock star guitar hero, complete with a wig of long, blond hear and a primal scream.

Perhaps it was that persona, or Ron’s fun-loving spirit in general, that opened the door years ago to a youth group member, Alan Barnett, who decided he wanted to play bass in the band.  Alan didn’t know how to play the instrument well, but he reached out to Ron, who agreed to help him.  A few years later, he returned from college, pulled Ron aside at church and thanked him.

“He thanked me for investing in him, and said it helped his confidence and made him feel like he belonged,” Ron said.  “What mentor doesn’t want to hear that?”

By that time, Ron had already shared similar thanks and words of appreciation with his own mentors, Mr. Mazzant and Mr. Wiley.  And they liked hearing them, too.

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If you or someone you know in the Dutilh family has an interesting story or profession, send us your ideas! We would love to help tell the story. Email: communications@dutilhumc.org.