Dr. C.H. “Honeybear” Hamlin was still teaching at 92 years old. A pacifist, he gave everyone who could get in his class an “A” regardless. He’d done the same thing starting with World War II, keeping as many in school and out of the mili tary as he could. In 1962 he was saying, “We got no business messing with those “Veeneese”. I can proudly state one of the tennis classes I taught closed out before Hamlin’s “American Social Thought.” (All he taught, the same material in every class). When they announced my class beat Dr. Hamlin, the first person to every top him, I took the Registrar’s mike and thanked the student body, to a round of applause.
People fought to get into his classes. Once, when admits to classes were printed on I.B.M. cards, someone stole the admittance cards from the administration building. They were selling like hotcakes at 35 dollars a pop before the Entrepre- neurs where caught.
People would bring Dr. Hamlin butter beans, okra, sweet potatoes or whatever was growing. He’d first claim kin to them, “What’s your name? From where? Or Yes I knew your sister!”, then he’d pat their hand and say your grade is already “in the vault”. Once I saw a student being led across campus by three blue tick bird dogs. His name was “Blackhawk” (very dark hair) and I asked “Hawk, where you going? He said “I’m gonna show Dr. Hamlin my dogs.”
Atlantic Christian built a nice student center toward the end of Dr. Hamlin’s career. The school had a policy which stated no building could be named after someone still living. The students were told to take down their homemade sign proclaiming the C.H. Hamlin Student Center. They refused. The school removed the sign. The students erected another. The school took it down again. This continued until the school relented, and a nice sign bears witness to love for Dr. Hamlin.