A Time To Be Gentle and Shun Offense
One of the above, Errol Erickson,
was a particular loss to me personally. He had to retire early because
of pressures in his life and I had gotten into the habit after his
retirement, of visiting him almost every morning to talk literature,
trout fishing and current affairs. He'd suffered with bi-polarity, and
to put it mildly, his passing was a huge loss. “And soonest our best
men with thee do go” wrote John Donne of death. (See “Death Be Not
Proud”)
Errol was an especially
kind-hearted guy. He used to go with me to pick up John Rienbold who
struggled with Alzheimer's. John had one of the keenest minds ever, and
to see that “noble mind quite o'er thrown” was touching for both
of us, but we all “communicated,”and had great times as we went places
together.
Gene Pinkney - For The Daily
News – 5/30/21
We are living in troubled
times. Never have the headlines been so rife with fearful reports: mass
shootings, bloody riots, dreaded diseases, vengeful uprisings,
retaliations. Unspeakable cruelties, grizzly and cold-blooded murders
have become so “in use,” that, as Shakespeare put it, “widows may but
smile to see their infants quartered by the hand of war.” We are
living in times when the passing or retirement of kind, gentle folk has
become a major cause of sadness and concern as we ask ourselves, “how
will they find anyone to so graciously and perfectly fill their place?”
Just today in Sunday's “Daily
News,” I read the obituary of Blayne Helgeson who used to work in
Printing and Publications at NDSCS. Back in 1992, I was given the
assignment to create a student literary magazine. I liked department
chairman Alan Peterson's idea, but had no clue how to really go about
handling such a task—especially with 5 classes and 80+ themes to correct
every week. So I thought, “I know; I'll go talk to Blayne and pick his
brain for ideas. Frankly, I'd never worked with anyone so eager to help
and so pleasant about doing so. He gave me enough ammo to get me off on
the right foot, and voila! “Headwaters” was born. Blayne was one of
those gentle, approachable, 'happy to help' people whose shoes will be
hard to fill.
Also, it was announced that
Harvey Link, vice president for academic affairs and dean of the ASP was
retiring, and he was just as helpful as Blayne. Years back I'd had a
personal problem that might have been quite damaging to my career, but
Harvey handled it so deftly that hardly a ripple troubled my waters. A
far cry from some of today's leaders who greet any bad news with a
barrage of invective. Certainly NDSCS has been blessed with not a few
fine, gentle and tactful leaders who have given our ship smooth sailing.
And not all that long ago we
lost Woody Caspers, easily the best public relations person the college
ever had-- handsome, creative and wonderfully gifted with the ability to
interest alumni and others in contributing to future adventures in
excellence that have always marked Science's “dream” vision.
The English dept. in which I
taught for forty plus years was especially gifted with a variety of
personalities so diverse that any students could find just the right
teacher to fit his or her learning style. We had Jean Evanstad who
enjoyed rollicking reparte', we had John Reinbold, who was much into
grammar and mechanics, we had Errol Erickson who was so drop-dead
handsome his classes were packed with appreciative co-eds. Then we had
Ralph Morben, who was so kind-hearted he couldn't find it in his heart
to fail anybody. Jocks, mechanics, anybody who had “trouble' with
English thanked God that they could find a seat in one of Ralph's
classes. There were several others including myself who thankfully are
still alive so I needn't deal with them. But, as Archie Bunker put it, “Everybody
pulled his weight.” Gee, our English crew was great!
But I think all these great
people passing away or retiring early, coupled with the dire headlines
of these troubled times is very ominous-- perhaps signaling that even
greater tribulations could lie ahead.
At no time has it ever been
more important to avoid offending people as well as taking and harboring
offense. Let forgiveness be your prime priority, and love for your
fellow man be a daily goal. “As Jackie DeShannon's great 60's song went.
“Give me love, sweet love,/ Love sweet love, / That's the only
thing/That there's just too little of.”
html uploaded 09-03-2021