The image in my mind of Jock Hatfield is on the football field at Greendell Elementary. I'm in the huddle calling a play like "Steve you go long and I'll throw the ball as far as I can." I look at Jock, he's playing left gaurd and he looks like the toughest most determined lineman I ever played football with, ever. (With all his physical challenges he was right there with us getting down and dirty on the football field.) I knew in that moment we were gonna score on that play. To this day I still see this image in my mind. He's gone ahead but not forgotten. He was the crown jewel of are sixth grade class and he proved it in the short time he spent on the earth.
Peace to Jock Hatfield! It's an honor to have walked the earth with you.
BY JACK ANDERSON AND JOSEPH SPEAR
POSTED: February 20, 1986
WASHINGTON — It was two years ago that Jock Hatfield died at the age of 26,
and we still feel his absence acutely. Jock was a talented and caring
reporter who followed the basic rule of investigative journalism: Comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.
Jock had arrived in our chaotic offices from California with one rumpled
suit, enough money for about three meals - and a burning ambition the size of the Capitol dome. He was as green as new grass, but tempered by obvious physical handicaps that would have caused a lesser person to give up.
Roaming Washington's sterile corridors of power, Jock was soon diligently
and cheerfully exposing the graft and the gaffes, the mistakes and
malfeasance that are red meat to a good reporter. His first story exposed
an Interior Department giveaway of 300,000 acres of public land to the coal barons - an exclusive that set the standard for a string of scoops on
similar deals for those favored by the high and mighty.
Jock's personal courage was limitless. He was particularly proud of the
columns he filed from Haiti. At no small risk to himself, he detailed the
repression and corruption that blighted the wretched inhabitants of the
Duvalier domain, and planned to return for a follow-up even after the
Haitian government had made its displeasure with his first series clear.
He never made the trip. He learned that, in addition to his physical
disfigurement, he had inoperable cancer. Jock chose to spend his remaining weeks doing investigative stories on Capitol Hill.
It was in those final days of pain and debilitation that Jock showed courage of an even rarer sort. He never whined or bemoaned the lousy hand fate had dealt him. He retained his capacity for both outrage and amusement at the ethical frailties that he had set himself to expose. Never revealing the hopelessness of his situation, refusing to play his sources for sympathy, Jock poured all his energies into his chosen craft. He died without fuss or complaint.
His friends, determined to preserve his memory in an appropriate way, set up the Jock Hatfield Memorial Scholarship Fund to compensate young reporters who will cover the stories that Jock would have. Donations to the fund and scholarship applications will be accepted by its director, Susan Benesch,
at 945 West End Ave., No. 6-B, New York, N.Y. 10025.
Harry Hall
The image in my mind of Jock Hatfield is on the football field at Greendell Elementary. I'm in the huddle calling a play like "Steve you go long and I'll throw the ball as far as I can." I look at Jock, he's playing left gaurd and he looks like the toughest most determined lineman I ever played football with, ever. (With all his physical challenges he was right there with us getting down and dirty on the football field.) I knew in that moment we were gonna score on that play. To this day I still see this image in my mind. He's gone ahead but not forgotten. He was the crown jewel of are sixth grade class and he proved it in the short time he spent on the earth.
Peace to Jock Hatfield! It's an honor to have walked the earth with you.
your friend,
Harry
Lynn Burnett (Gentry)
Jock, was always a kind and considerate friend. I will miss his laugh.
Lynn
Bill Sailor
From FACEBOOK 9/18/2015
BY JACK ANDERSON AND JOSEPH SPEAR
POSTED: February 20, 1986
WASHINGTON — It was two years ago that Jock Hatfield died at the age of 26,
and we still feel his absence acutely. Jock was a talented and caring
reporter who followed the basic rule of investigative journalism: Comfort
the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.
Jock had arrived in our chaotic offices from California with one rumpled
suit, enough money for about three meals - and a burning ambition the size of the Capitol dome. He was as green as new grass, but tempered by obvious physical handicaps that would have caused a lesser person to give up.
Roaming Washington's sterile corridors of power, Jock was soon diligently
and cheerfully exposing the graft and the gaffes, the mistakes and
malfeasance that are red meat to a good reporter. His first story exposed
an Interior Department giveaway of 300,000 acres of public land to the coal barons - an exclusive that set the standard for a string of scoops on
similar deals for those favored by the high and mighty.
Jock's personal courage was limitless. He was particularly proud of the
columns he filed from Haiti. At no small risk to himself, he detailed the
repression and corruption that blighted the wretched inhabitants of the
Duvalier domain, and planned to return for a follow-up even after the
Haitian government had made its displeasure with his first series clear.
He never made the trip. He learned that, in addition to his physical
disfigurement, he had inoperable cancer. Jock chose to spend his remaining weeks doing investigative stories on Capitol Hill.
It was in those final days of pain and debilitation that Jock showed courage of an even rarer sort. He never whined or bemoaned the lousy hand fate had dealt him. He retained his capacity for both outrage and amusement at the ethical frailties that he had set himself to expose. Never revealing the hopelessness of his situation, refusing to play his sources for sympathy, Jock poured all his energies into his chosen craft. He died without fuss or complaint.
His friends, determined to preserve his memory in an appropriate way, set up the Jock Hatfield Memorial Scholarship Fund to compensate young reporters who will cover the stories that Jock would have. Donations to the fund and scholarship applications will be accepted by its director, Susan Benesch,
at 945 West End Ave., No. 6-B, New York, N.Y. 10025.
Peter Gioumousis
John Abe (Abe)
Jock was a good guy who was kind to everyone. I regret not getting to know him better when we were classmates.