Paul Hook (Photo by John Schreiber, The Daily Campus)

Paul Hook is an energetic and personal 71 year-old. Ask him if there is anything he wants to talk about, and he answers by saying that he can talk for a week about 13 grandchildren, seven kids and all the places they went to college. And so, for the first few minutes of his Wellness II swimming course, Hook likes to talk, about his family and everything else.

Hook first came to SMU as a graduate student. Landing a job here was partly because he was at the right place at the right time.

“When I finished my year of graduate school for my master’s degree,” Hook said, “there was an opening on the faculty and I was allowed to apply for it. Then I was put on the payroll.”

That’s just where he’s been for nearly 46 years. He has even made work a family affair. His wife, Gloria Hook, is a Wellness I professor. The couple, who will celebrate their 32nd wedding anniversary in April, shares an office.

But now it is back to business. Hook’s swimmers hop in the pool, and he starts on a steady call of “ones! twos!,” stopping every now and then to direct them in a different stroke or to offer a little advice on how to glide properly. He is a relaxed guy, and he lets his swimmers do what works best for them, an approach they appreciate.

Catherine DuBord describes it as “go get ’em.”

“It really allows people to go at their own pace and challenge themselves,” said the theater major, who graduates in May. “That is really nice.”

After about half an hour of swimming laps, Hook’s students emerge from the pool and slowly move to their towels.

“I like this class,” Hook said. “Everybody is always tired and breathing heavy when it is over.”

He likes to see that his swimmers are working hard at something. Though Hook thinks his students are wonderful and bright, he does “wish we had a student body that was more interested in getting a good education and getting a degree.” He thinks some of them may have no idea what life is like.

Some of his students stick around and talk to him for a few minutes more.

Hook said the relationships he forms with his students are the most rewarding part of his job.

Just recently he went to breakfast with a student from last semester, and there is “a graduate student, an accountant from a few years back, who has almost become a member of the family,” he said. “Our house is very open.”

And he means it. On the first day of class, Hook challenges all of his students to do something that scares them, like drop by his house for dinner whenever they want, and he makes sure they know he is serious.

With all of the conversation before and after class, an evening at the Hook house might turn into one of those great college memories.