Alumni Feature - Tom Hernandez '88

Tom Hernandez ’88 graduated with a degree in journalism and communications, which has served him well throughout his career. His days of creating a newspaper for his elementary school to his experience as a journalist and columnist have prepared him for one of his most memorable experiences yet – writing and publishing books. “I have always written poetry,” explains Tom. “I’ve always been a performer, actor, and musician, whenever I can find the time. I really enjoy the fine arts. After years of family and friends encouraging me to write a book, I finally made the leap.” He has now published two books and is working on a third.

After college, Tom served as a newspaper reporter for ten years before changing course and finding a niche in school district communications. He is currently the Director of Community Relations for the Plainfield School District. “In 1998, I started writing a column for the Plainfield Sun newspaper to get back to writing, which I loved to do. The column started out more as political commentary but turned into a piece on life through the eyes of a young, suburban dad. I wrote about marriage, age, family and faith. I re-read and edited down 700 columns I’d written over 11 years to 70 for the book.”

Tom is also an alumni volunteer! To see photos of our alumni volunteers at work, visit our photo gallery.

For example, one column focused on his efforts as a young father, and what his daughters would write about him one day. Would they remember him as the dad who played baseball or the one who worked too much? That essay provided the title of Tom’s book, Chocolate Cows and Purple Cheese: And Other Tales from the Homefront.

In 2012, Tom published Abundance, a book of his poetry, written over the course of his life. Now, he is writing a novel. This fictional story surrounds a young man who was adopted, and slowly learns forgiveness and finds a sense of personal identity following his father’s death.