Drafting teacher reflects on career

Last week, I wrote about Jerry Hund, a Bartlett High School teacher who was named the 2010 Illinois Drafting Teacher of the Year by the Illinois Drafting Educator’s Association.

This week, I had an opportunity to speak with Hund about the award.

During our conversation, I learned a lot about drafting and how it has changed over the past 30 years.

Hund has witnessed those changes, and while he hasn’t always welcomed them, he has tried to stay abreast of the them and prepare his students for the modern, technology-driven workplace.

Hund’s first introduction to drafting came at Proviso West High School in Hillside more than 40 years ago.

“That was my favorite class along with art,” Hund recalls. “Back then we drew with pencils and paper. Computers weren’t even around.”

After studying architecture and education at Triton College and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Hund worked for a series of architecture and engineering firms, eventually landing in the engineering department of Binks Manufacturing in 1980.

By then, Hund had had enough of pencil and paper.

“I was pretty much burned out with drafting,” he said. “I didn’t want to draw anymore. I wanted to go back into education so I joined the training division.”

A few years later, Hund earned his master’s degree in education from Northern Illinois University in DeKalb.

In 1999, Hund’s job at Binks was eliminated. He was ready to make another move.

“I thought, if there’s a time to go back into education, it’s now,” he said.

But there was a problem. The world had changed since he first studied drafting in the late 1960s. Pencil and paper had been replaced by mouse and monitor.

“I didn’t know how to do anything with drawing on a computer,” Hund confessed.

To bring himself up to date, Hund took some classes at the College of DuPage. Despite his initial reluctance, Hund eventually embraced computer-aided design and the later shift to three-dimensional drawing.

“In the old days, I’d make a floor plan and an elevation plan and a wall section,” Hund said. “Now, I can make a floor plan in three dimensions. It’s not like I have to create all these drawings separately now.”

Hund applied for a job at Bartlett High School in 1999 and has been a full-time teacher there ever since, helping his students win awards in computer-aided design and go on to careers in architecture, engineering and myriad other fields.

“They have the ability,” Hund said. “I just bring out the best in them.”

Hund, who is 60, says he plans to retire in a few years but still enjoys what he does.

“They keep you young, they are a lot of fun,” he said of his students. “As long as I’m able to do it, I’ll continue to do it.”