Contributed by Doug Ferguson
An obituary from five years ago recently came to my attention and has reminded me of another “Great American” whose experience I can share in this series of articles about Americans by whom I and many others have been influenced in our lives at a time when America was at it’s prime.
His name is William G. Dykins, otherwise known as “Dyke” to his students, and he was my senior high school English Teacher in the 1954-55 season in Boardman, Ohio. He passed away in 2018 in Sebring, Ohio at age 94 after a long, productive, and inspiring life.
By the time we started our senior year in 1954, a significant majority of our graduating class had made plans, if not actual admissions to colleges in our state and across the country, a very unusual occurrence for that era. This also was three years before the Soviet Union had launched “Sputnik”, the world’s first satellite which then sparked a national discussion of where America was educationally and technically.
However, Mr. Dykins was ahead of his times in questioning the need to “toughen up” our educational systems! He and math teacher Ed Istnick on their own decided to take actions probably not possible in today’s educational environment. They decided that fostering a more intense, disciplined teaching model based on “critical thinking” was needed. As I recall, for his part Mr. Istnick pushed college level algebra.
As my English teacher, however, Mr. Dykins asked which members of his classes were planning to go on to college and then assigned each of us to write a weekly essay on any subject we wished, which he would then individually review at our desk each week while the rest of the class did a reading assignment. The reason for this, he pointed out, was that we were going to need to be doing a lot of writing in college and the only way to be prepared was to actually do a lot of writing. Thus, we were to do this weekly for the whole school year!
He also put the following conditions on these essays. Since they were homework and we had access to the dictionary and our English text with grammar rules, there were to be NO spelling or grammar errors in the essays that he would personally review with us at our desks!
As it turned out, he would enforce this policy by the following: As he went through your essay, he would comment on things like, “This is good here, but next time try this” or “You argument is weak here, but I like your ending” and other constructive comments. Then he would say, “However, there are two spelling errors!” and then proceed to tear out the essay from your notebook and crumple it up for the waste basket!
For this he became known as “Dyke the Ripper”, a nickname that humorously followed him the rest of his career! We quickly learned to double-check our work at home and also to keep a rough draft in the event we had to do the essay over!
In conversations I have had since with former class members, it turns out that because of Mr. Dykins’ “tough standards”, we all “aced” our Freshman English in college and for many like myself, started a long career of writing in our jobs, hobbies and other enterprises.
In spite of being “Dyke the Ripper”, he was a great friend and teacher to all. He also was the Drama teacher at our school and actually wrote and directed our senior play!
At the time I was a senior I was not aware of his WWII experience nor his educational background as he had just started teaching at our high school in 1952. I also wasn’t aware of what he accomplished the rest of his life. I only became aware of this since I received his obituary from a friend.
It turns out he served in WWII as a Combat Engineer and was the recipient of five Bronze Stars! He then attended Youngstown College and Westminster College and started his teaching career in the late 1940’s. After 39 years of teaching, he retired as head of Boardman’s English department and also Ohio High School League “Hall of Fame” Speech Coach.
Along the way he started the “Show Van”, a traveling truck and troupe of young students/actors who traveled throughout the Mahoning Valley bringing theatre to the various communities. With the Youngstown Playhouse he volunteered his time and directed many plays including “Macbeth.” Among many awards, he received two “Honor a Teacher Initiatives” from the Harvard Graduate School of Education by former students for outstanding performance in education.
Another truly “Great American” that I was fortunate to have as a part of my life back when such a person could be effective and inspirational in what they did.
Doug Ferguson is a retired engineer living in Palmer, AK who has had a lifelong interest in science, American history and human behavior.