Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
WINONA LAKE - Life for David Hook didn't start off that well. He was burned so badly as an infant, doctors removed his left leg. He spent the next seven years in and out of Michigan hospitals undergoing rehabilitation.
Now 74, Hook has worn about every type of artificial leg, going through two of them in a three-week period when he was in the seventh or eighth grade.
"I jumped over a hole and broke the first leg," he said. "About a week later I jumped over a water bottle and broke the crutches. When the new leg came I jumped over the hole again and broke it. My mama had about had it with me."
Hook eventually took up auto mechanics as a profession, marrying and fathering four children.
Hook married June after his first wife died. June brought two children to the marriage and then gave birth to Amy.
In 1971 the Hooks took their seven children to Guatamela to establish an orphanage.
"I had $100 in my pocket when I arrived," he said. "The Lord provided for us." The family returned to the United States in 1976.
"At one point the children decided I needed a college degree," he said. He applied at Lansing Community College and they made him an instructor on the spot. Taking classes, too, Hook eventually received a teaching certificate from Farris University.
That certificate brought him to the Warsaw Ivy Tech campus in 1985, where he taught auto mechanics.
Retired, Hook stays busy. Last year he and June took a bus to another orphanage, sponsored by Hands of Hope in Warsaw.
One daughter married a Guatamelan and continues to live in that country. His grandchildren attend a school where his orphanage used to be.
