Carpe Diem

I met Roger Dixon while teaching for the Plainwell Community Schools. I started in the fall of 1969.  Roger taught in the high school, and I taught in the middle school.  His wife, Carolyn, taught with Ruth and me.  I don’t think we were together for more than a year, or two, when Roger took another job. Carolyn went as well.  We hadn’t hung out together, or run in the same social circle, until I got a call one Sunday in late July of 1977.

Roger called me to ask if I’d be interested in applying for the elementary principal position in Addison, Michigan.  He’d been looking for a new principal but couldn’t find a “good fit”. He learned that I was looking for a principalship through mutual friends, Bill and Patsy Switzer.  They taught in Plainwell as well.  Patsy was a part of my team-teaching team.

I’d heard of Addison because another Plainwell teacher, Irv Figel, almost went there the prior year to teach fourth grade for Roger.  In the end, he chose to stay in Plainwell.

I was teaching driver’s education that summer and agreed to drive to Addison the following week for an interview.  I told Roger that I’d be coming directly from driver’s ed.  “I won’t be dressed for an interview.  I’ll just be wearing a golf shirt and slacks.”  He told me that wouldn’t be a problem, and two other men, Don Dieck and Rick Lane, would be a part of the interview team.  Don was the high school principal, and Rick was the principal of the new middle school opening that fall.

I showed up as planned and the interview went well.  I was invited back for another the following week.  This time I had lunch with the original three men and Murielle, the Curriculum Director, and Pam, a school board trustee.  We ate at the Moonlight Chalet in Somerset Center.  The name’s been changed to the Deck Down Under, but it’s still there after almost fifty years.

Once again, the interview went well.  I was offered the job a couple days later.  Ruth and I had already discussed the potential move, and I agreed to take the position.  I got a $4,000 raise to begin my career as a school administrator.  I made $15,000.

I could tell you dozens of stories about Roger’s leadership.  The most important thing for me was he believed in me.  When I arrived, I thought I knew a ton and the fact of the matter was I learned almost everything on the job.  Roger, Don and Rick offered advice whenever I sought it.  We met as a group every payday Friday and discussed everything.  Roger sought our input, and we sought his.

Don, Rick and I attended every school board meeting so we could answer any questions that might come up that were related to our assignments.  Roger didn’t censor our answers because he trusted each of us to do our jobs. After each meeting, we went to Roger’s house to debrief.  We had a drink, or two, and the learning continued.  We trusted one another.  We didn’t always agree, but we always felt like our input mattered.

Roger moved on from Addison after a few years. I stayed until I became Superintendent of Britton-Macon.  We ran into one another at conferences from time to time.   We kept track of each other’s kids that way.

When I started writing, he started reading.  He “liked” my last story, 800.  He read it Wednesday on Facebook, and he died the next.  I received the news from Rick Lane’s wife, Jan.  A social media post says he died from a “catastrophic brain aneurysm”.

When Ruth died Roger offered me words of encouragement and shared my grief. Over the past several years he wished me Happy Birthday through Facebook posts. Each post concluded with carpe diem.  Seize the day!  He wrote that way because he lived that way.

If there’s a heaven, Roger made it.  Say hello to Ruth for me.

Carpe Diem!