HCTC and KCTCS honor Professor Ralph Kidd

Hazard Community and Technical College honors Professor Ralph Kidd with the New Horizons Outstanding Faculty award. Kidd is the Coordinator of the Automotive Technology Program and the Support Education Excellence in Kentucky (SEEK) Coordinator, working with high schools in the region. He was recognized in May by the Kentucky Community and Technical College System at a statewide conference.

Kidd, age 53, started teaching June 15, 1985, and in those 29 years, he has stressed to students the importance of gaining trust of vehicle owners. If you can develop a good relationship with the person owning the car or truck, you will have a customer for life.

Extreme hands-on learning is part of each student s education in his classes, Kidd noted, adding that he stresses to students the importance of doing the job right.

Kidd holds a bachelor s degree in Vocational Education Level Three and a master s degree in Vocational Administration, both from Eastern Kentucky University. His career goal 37 years ago was to be a band director and he was enrolled at Arkansas Polytechnic University in Russellville, Arkansas as a music education major.

Through the years, Kidd has noticed the students now have more savvy than those a decade ago. He also has noticed the age of his students is now younger. The average age now is 21; the average age used to be 26.

HCTC President Dr. Steve Greiner applauds Kidd continuous message of treating the customer as you want to be treated. Professor Kidd not only provides the technical skills our students need to obtain a good job, he offers training on how to be good business minded. I m very happy to see his dedicated service honored and his excellence recognized, he said.

Tony Back, Division Chair at the Technical Campus, praised Kidd for his ability to recruit students into his program. He also appreciates Kidd for obtaining National Automotive Technicians Education Foundation (NATEF) Accreditation for his program, adding that Kidd s students consistently perform well on the Automotive Service Excellence (ASE) certification exams.

Kidd and his wife, Patricia, live in Hazard. The couple has two daughters, Kelsie, age 23, a Physical Therapist Assistant at Highlands Physical Therapy and Kendra, age 20, an HCTC student planning to enter a dental hygiene program.