ntro: This is Dick Dyer. I’m continuing
with the history of Columbia College and this is the 21st of May
1991. And I’m doing an interview with a person that I didn’t think I’d be
interviewing. In essence I’m interviewing myself, as I am preparing at
the end of graduation this week to retire over thirty years of teaching.
More than twenty years at Columbia College.
To start in the beginning, both of my
parents came from very humble backgrounds. Neither graduates from
college, neither graduated from high school. I was the first to go on and
graduate from college from the family, although later others would do the same
thing. I was brought up in southern California at a time when Southern
California was somewhat of an ideal place for an active young boy, because I
was quite interested in sports—playing all the way through elementary school
and high school and my college days. The rural environment of southern
California at that time was ideal for active people and for people who were
concerned about a simpler lifestyle than what people know the area to be today.
I
attended Kabina High
School, graduating in 1949, and went to Mount San Antonio College, a rather
small, rather rural rustic school in the mountains between Kubina and Pomona. And from there, eventually,
went on to get my degree from Levin College and my teaching credential from
Claremont Graduate School in the vicinity.
After graduating from Claremont, I took
a position in Arcadia High School, one of the fine academic high schools in
southern California, but a school that we frequently refer to as a “white
ghetto.” Although there were some problems from that respect from the point of
view of discipline, from the point of view of academic prowess on the part of
the students. From the point of view of support in salaries and
instructional materials it was somewhat of an ideal place to teach; however,
ever during my early years in school, I realized that I wanted to teach in a
community college.
And
after having gone on a sabbatical for a full year in Europe, I started
searching for a community college and fortunately Columbia was starting at that
time, in the late 1960s. And they showed interest in hiring me in 1968
when the college was at its temporary campus in Columbia State Park; however,
because of the shortage of money at the time, they indicated an interest, but
they could not hire me in 1968. After investigating the county and the
community and the college, I and my wife were both convinced that a move from
rapidly urbanizing Southern California to the beautiful foothills of old
Tuolumne would be ideal. And when offered a position as a history
instructor in 1969 I and my wife came to the community, looked around, and
without really hesitating, took the position; although there’s always some
trepidation about the different environment of this type. It proved to be
unfounded, because from the very beginning, we felt very comfortable because
both of us had been brought up in small communities when we were younger.
And our three girls discovered that it was very easy for them to join the wild
animals and our proliferation of dogs—actually only three at a time…at any
given time—and to enjoy the open space and out five acres in East Sonora.
Well, I was hired in 1969 to teach
political science courses and history courses and it was also part of my job
description, but it was obvious that they were interested in a person that had
a background in local history as well as regional history because there was a
strong tie, in those days, between college and community. And it was an
effort to try to establish the kind of public relations that goes into building
bridges at a time that most of the people in our campus were considered hippies
and most of the instructors were considered to be those who have a false
message, and that the problems beginning at A an
going through Z in Tuolumne County were attributable to what the college had
brought in. And although it was very easy to show that this was not true,
people don’t tend to be ration al when situations like this surface.
I did work, and still work, very
actively with the Tuolumne County Historical Society—one of my true
loves. I have been president of the Historical Society twice and also a
member of the Historical Society’s museum board and it’s been, to me, a very
important part in trying to indicate to students and others that you don’t have
to have a ridged separation of campus and community, but that there can be a
blending of the two and that the resources of one can be the resources of
another. With that thought, my great dream was to establish a Mother Lode
Studies Center in the foothills that would use the rich heritage of Tuolumne
County as a kind of vehicle for a variety of activities, not just in history,
but in other areas that would make it possible for us to have greater appeal
for the older students and even for teachers searching for additional credit on
their salary schedules. So there was an advisory committee that was
established, but, unfortunately, the timing seemed to be bad. It either
took us too long to get started, or because of the usual problems of lack of
funds and perhaps even lack of commitment on the part of many members of the teaching
staff. The Mother Lode Study Center became a dream, but never advanced much
beyond the kind of Dick Dyer type feeling that it would be good for the college
as well as the community to do this sort of thing. One of the spin-offs
from that was the fact that we did get a modest Nation Endowment for the
Humanities grant of about eleven-thousand dollars to reconstruct an actual
Indian site on the campus—the site near the first parking lot, or between the
first parking lot and the fire station was eventually established as a
reconstructed Miwok encampment with the roundhouse and several other structures
plus a couple of museum display cases, grinding rock that’s there, and a mini
nature trail that was there. For many many
years it was a very popular place for students and community groups to
visit. And the buses would drive up and I or another person would meet
them and take them around and try to show, to especially our local students,
but even students from San Joaquin Valley the fact that the Miwok Indian heritage
in this area was a very rich heritage and that this was a small sample of the
kind of thing that was done. Along with that, there was a dream on the
part of many of us, I think of our first president, Dusty Rhodes, I think of
our deans, Bob Deil, and myself along with a selected
other instructors to try to do something to bring about close cooperation in
between Columbia state Park and the college. A kind of a feeling that
went around was that maybe we can establish a Williamsburg of the west where
there can be an upgrading of their antiquated slide program and a more active
interpretive program there. But again, with proposition thirteen and
other commitments that were more pressing it more or less became a dream and
Columbia State Park did institute some of these changes themselves, especially
their very popular dosen program, but the close tie that once existed,
especially in the middle 1970s between the college and the state park, seems to
have been and unfulfilled aspiration on the part of some of us.
In
1969 and 1970 the campus was being constructed and we truly were modern
pioneers in every sense of the word, with the mud that was around and the
facilities that didn’t always work properly, a shortage of facilities—even
basic facilities. But it was with joy that many of us reflect on those
pioneer days because I think it established an osprey
décor that has created a bond that still exists between those of us that are
labeled Columbia College Emeritus. We still get together and still
reminisce and still feel that despite the hardships, those were good
days. In those early days I remember events that I still speak about,
including in many of my classes, and one of those events was I was giving an
examination in the forum and the f\door was open since it was the spring of the
year and while we were taking the examination a fawn walked in and, since it
was very quiet and cool inside, the fawn looked around and sat down for awhile and no one threatened it. They continued taking
their examinations and after awhile the fawn thought
that we weren’t much fun so the fawn got up and wondered out, I suppose to more
exciting company outside.
Also
about that same time, in must have been 1971, we had some real cold weather; a
lot of snow on the campus and for the first time since I’d been in Columbia, I
saw the lake almost freeze. I recall being on one end of the lake, over
where the art building is now, and looking from the art building toward where
the library would be or the cafeteria, and the only thing that was open, was a
little bit of a path, maybe eight to ten feet wide, where the ducks had been
swimming back and forth and all the rest of it was crusted with this white
covering of snow. The lake itself brought back memories because just about
the same time, not the same season, but in the spring of the year we had the
only protest that I’ve known at Columbia College. It was one of those hot
late-spring days and early in the morning as we assemble for our early morning
classes there was Xerox copies of notes indicating “We Protest” and
headlines…it was the usual interesting items: “we protest the generation gap,”
“we protest the war in Vietnam,” ‘we protest…,’ ‘we protest…,’ ‘we protest…’
The problem is is that the protesting that had gone
on at Santa Barbra, and San Francisco, and Berkeley, and other places like that
with the real professionals, with the real T.V. people, and with real interest
five years earlier or so. And, so, not too many people were interested in a
protest in rural Tuolumne County; although they had alerted the news media, no
one showed up, and the students continued going to class. It was getting
too close to examination time, so I suppose we were able to coerce them into
attending class. And the protesters, numbering literally a handful or so,
finally grew tired of it and them went for a swim out in the Reservoir,
occupied the lake for awhile and some people went out
to talk with them and eventually convinced them that they should disappear into
the woods from whence they came and with that our only real serious protest
ended somewhat peacefully.
I also remember memorable events with
the community activities. The college was very quick in the middle of the
1970 to support a lot of activities—to support them with our resources, our
staff, with money. The county was celebrating the 100th
anniversary…its 100th anniversary…125th anniversary it
was in 1975…the 125th anniversary. And it proved to be a big
event in which one of our aids, Frank Collison, impersonated Mark Twain.
Frank came from a family of thespians and did an absolutely outstanding job at
a dinner and a commemorative celebration at the Elks Lodge in the spring, if I
recall, of 1975. Then after that we had the bicentennial, and I was a
co-chairman of the bicentennial committee. But, once again, the college
was quick to use the learning skills...the IMC area, and out graphic artist,
Andy Moure, our photographer, Ron Roach, and Jack Ross, who did a lot of the
administrative chores, as well as the secretarial pool to do a lot of the
printing and a lot of the publicity for bicentennial activities. It
didn’t prove to be the great success that we had hoped for in Tuolumne County,
but that was indicative of what it was like on the federal level also.
But in any event, it clearly indicated a kind of closeness that was being
generated. And little by little the hippie tech image that we had back in
the early 1970s was being changed and this was evident by all kinds of more
attractive articles in the Union Democrat as well as fewer comments from
well-known community members who now ask with a genuine interest in the
progress of the college when they would see college instructors.
It’s
difficult to assess Columbia College in twenty-some years. It becomes
rather emotional when one thinks about it. But as I go back through this
important period, since my real interest was especially in teaching the history
of the mother-lode and courses like oral history, it became evident to me that
this was a special environment; a place where the richness and the past
heritage, the families, that were still here, the important places and events
where thing didn’t just have a kind of appeal to history teacher, but also had
an appeal to students and to other that came here. So it was with great
joy that I became involved, especially in trying to translate political science
and history and cultural geography and the multitude of courses that I and all
the rest of us have to teach, into things that tended to directly… more
directly relate to home and activities of the place where people lived. Even activities that had once existed on our campus when it was
very easy to relate it to mining, and to the water system, and to the lumber
industry, and also to the Indians on the campus area.
Students change. I’ve always
found that I relate better to the committed student, to the serious
student. In most cases that tend to be the older students. I don’t
seem to have (___) patience for the student that
wastes the time of instructors or other members of the class. But our
students have been the full range. We get the very young and we get the
very old and we’ve had the very good and we‘ve had the very average that have
been here.
The
instructors have been a joy for me to work with. Realizing my humble
background and some of my humble test scores, I feel a great pleasure to have
worked with a long list of people that have been associated with Columbia
College. They obviously are a gifted group of highly committed people.
Obviously, the concept of the student being an important
part, a focal point of their activities, in more than just durbidge.
I think of many that I’ll not name, but very dear who would give up extra time
at home and weekends and countless field trip—even form their own pocket
books—to help out student who were in need of words, or a sympathetic hand, or
a sustenance of another type. In general, this is true with our administrators.
I’ve always felt that we have too many of the lower level of administrators,
but it’s very easy for them to justify it and they’ve been very
supportive. Without exception it is easy to see that they are as
committed as our members of the instructional staff: the regular staff members,
the backup people, the people that are out as the bus drivers, and mechanics,
and gardeners, and custodians. These are people that I remember dearly by
name and I realized without the work of these people, who have also been
overloaded in their assignments, we would have some major problems in having
the beautiful campus that we have today. In the offices all you have to
do is smile and make a genuine request and you’d discover that enumerable
members of our non-certificated staff will work over-time, and will be
creative, and will do all of those extra things that are important. It’s
very easy to say that from the overall assessment of Columbia College that our
students have been beneficiaries of a quality education in a quality
environment, and also to realize that this has had an effect not only on the
students but also on all the others who are a part of the Columbia experience
as well of those people who are a part of this glorious Mother Lode
community.
Well, before I get too emotional, let
me conclude by just a brief statement as to what I plat to do. I wanted to
retire when I felt good. I’d rather retire too early that too late.
I’m at the point now where my benefits are satisfactory, and my health is very
good, and I’m interested in a variety of things. I am particularly
interested in doing some part-time teaching at the campus for a year or two,
but not more than three. The Elderhostel program in the summer has high
appeal to me. These are people that do not require anything more than
just the teaching that is so important part of my life; and not all of the
committee work and the articulation, and all those other things that seem to
excite some people, but seem to be a drag from the point of view of many of
us. Other than part time teaching I do hope to do some serious greenhouse
gardening. It’s my plan to develop a library of greenhouse plants,
encyclopedias, as well as hoe-to-do-it type books to design and to build the
greenhouse, and then to maintain it, and then for a person that does not carry
a tune, to spend a lot of time singing to my plants in the solitude of my
greenhouse so that only the plants will be the beneficiaries of my tunes or my
carbon dioxide, I suppose it is what they’re looking for. I’ll do a lot
more recreational reading. The idea of constantly reading for a class is
beginning to get a little tiresome. I also plan to develop some
hobbies. I’m going to be working actively with Tuolumne County Historical
Society. I’d like to go back and do what I did as a youngster one time
and build some old fashion model airplanes; something about bringing out those
creative talents with my hands, it see\med to appeal to me. And then developing
and doing some…working with a tapestry. My wife’s family from Finland had
done a lot of wall-hangings and tapestries and I’ve watched her for years and
years do this so I’d like to do that. We have one that’s a very nostalgic
one that comes from a family member that I think I will start on in the fall of
the year as I get a little bit nostalgic about not being at Columbia College
about not doing my teaching. And finally, travel, since my wife in Finnish and
I’m very very proud of Fin,
we will spend time in Finland with surviving family members that are
there. We plan to do some Elderhostel traveling. I studied at the
University of London and would like to go back and take the Elderhostel program
there and take a three or four week tour with Elderhostel leaders of England
and perhaps go on then to my homeland to Norway and spend some time there. And
then finally, for a person who has done a lot of talking and preaching about
the Mother Lode area, we’ll do a lot of overnight trips in the Mother Lode. I
do enjoy going to the volcanoes, and the Sutter Creeks, and Placerville, and
Mono Lake, and places like that and we’ll do a lot of that. And as
a lat item I will be much more active in my
church. I am an elder in the church of the 49er Presbyterian church in Columbia and so for a long time I have missed
Sundays and I’ve missed participating in some of their very important activities.
And so I plan to be actively involved in the church work as well as in regular
bible study type activities at home and with other small groups.
I’ve enjoyed talking with you, unknown persons, but it’s an important part of
the college days and I hope that this history of Columbia College has
contributed information and perhaps even a little bit of entertainment to
you. May you continue to travel through this beautiful country and enjoy
it as so many of us have and may it bless you as it has blessed many of us.
General
Information:
Interviewer:
Dyer, Richard L.
Interviewee:
Dyer, Richard L. (Himself)
Name
of Tape: Faculty Interviews in the
History of Columbia Junior College (CC_hist_15_1)
When:
5/21/1991
Transcriber:
Ariella and Alden (September 2008)
Transcriber’s
Note: n/a