Duane, An Established Iconoclast. 

When Duane was in High School at Lyman, Nebraska, he had a disagreement with high teacher and was given the choice to either leave school or stay and do something disagreeable to him.  He choice to leave school and joined the Navy.

On Poetry:
In the 9th grade, about 1949 in Lyman High School, while not paying attention to the teacher, Duane was reading poetry.
One poem he  remembers roughly went like this:

It was a discussion of the 2 sides of war between a father and son

Father: "What a great war it was!"
Son: "But father, look how many kids were killed"
Father: " Ah, but it was a great victory!"
Son: "But look how many children and other people were hurt and killed."
Father: "Ah, but it was a great victory!"

Duane left high school when given the choice to either shovel snow or leave.  He left.  His father told him to get a job or leave home.  Duane, living In Lyman, moved 300 miles away to Cairo, Nebraska and opened a Cream station. This was the Harding Cream Station Company of Omaha.  He had run one in his father' s store so he knew the process.  He lived on ham, salad sandwiches all day.

After leaving the Navy, he finished high school at Edison Tech in Seattle in 1958.

After we married, although Duane was already in school at the University of Washington, . he  got a ticket in Seattle trying to turn left in a no left turn zone, on the way to school and dropped out of the University of Washington and moved to Scottsbluff Nebraska (where he had attended high school). Duane entered school there at Scottsbluff Junior College.  Karen worked at the Canadian bank of Commerce in Seattle, at the time. In Scottsbluff, before Karen arrived, Duane got Karen a job at a bank in Scottsbluff, and when the college entered the first semester, Karen quit the bank and started college, also.  We were in a minority being the only married couple attending college at the time.  We attended many of the same classes and at the same time, thought we would get 2 year degrees and teach and then have summers off where we could play.  Little did we know!

We learned summers need to be spent in school. We attended  college together at Scottsbluff, then Kearney where we each earned our bachelor's degrees.  The we went to West Virginia where I had an assistantship but when his GI Bill did not follow us we moved back to live for a time with his Uncle Milton.  

Duane and Karen, teachers a Edgemont High school at the time,  were among the smallest group from western South Dakota to attend the first teacher's strike in South Dakota. Later in his honor, the first teacher's strike in Wyoming took place at Ft Laramie in 1969, when he was fired there. .

Duane ultimately earned his Specialist and then his doctorate in 1974. He wrote his doctoral dissertation on teacher Peer Evaluation after doing some experimentation with it. His dissertation was in Peer Evaluation.   And I earned my Masters.

 In the 1970's Duane became school superintendent of several school in Nebraska, where he implemented innovative activities for the students, such as easier ways for non scholastic students to graduate as well as free time for maintenance of high grades. 

Duane dropped out of education after losing several jobs. After moving to Washington state he built five houses in twelve years, four of which he rented out and one in which he lived with his wife. At the same time he maintained the family through job eliminations of his wife Karen's two jobs, each of  eight years for sixteen years. He had friends among school board members and builders, the former of which he had frequent discussions. He taught school for two years and was school Superintendent at two schools after that. He spoke openly of being the most fired person. 

We camped a lot and once while traveling through Missouri, we found a few picknick tables in what appeared t be a campsite.  It was late and I said nervously, I would sleep in the car.  No Duane, he laid out on top of a picnic table.  Early the next day he awoke to here voices speaking quietly.  There were about 30 men waiting for a ride to work, not wanting to wake him.  We left rather quickly.

He often said out marriage was like a steam engine.  It was always rumbling and sometimes blew but it worked.

Duane often wondered why the 40-hour work week was not changed to 20 hours or even a 10-hour work week, with technology doing so much more than when the 40-hour work week came in.

EDGEMONT, SOUTH DAKOTA 1967-1968

Duane and I both taught at Edgemont those years.  We tried to organize the teachers for better conditions and better pay.  Many lived in the community and were afraid to speak up as they did not want to move.  

One teacher slept through his classes. The principle went in and took a picture and left the room, without waking the teacher! Another chose to work all football games, and it was suspected he was lifting from the proceeds - he did not want to give the job up, even though he was not paid for doing it and he never showed any interest in football.

One teacher was in charge of 50 in her study hall and it was usually unruly.  One day Duane passed by and saw her crying as someone had thrown something at her, cutting her arm.  Duane had to quite the room down before it got worse.

I, as librarian, had to go to the superintendent's office to request a piece of book tape to repair books.  I was not trusted with the roll of tape.

Four of us worked one summer to teach four summer school students as the Federal Government paid for it. The teachers decided that one teach would teach four hours, and the other three would rest and then they would switch.

 When we asked for equipment, the superintendent opened a room crammed with equipment and said see, this is all we have received from Title 2 - but none of us were allowed to use it.

1) Mt. Luther King day - flag - Joe Cersosimo
2) Organizing Pierre demonstration
3) Colored water at Lingle
4) If I have to FAGHT what do you call it?
5) Gun - trotter
6) Ritzman's glasses
7) Angerhofers, would they ever come back?
8) We bought red pick up from them for $150 and next day it didn't work - Duane returned and was told the transmission was going out - Angerhofer said "yes, the transmission is going out but there are 2 over there against the tree you can have."  We used that red truck to haul ammunition boxes for our house and water from Edgemeont
9) Refrigerator in Red Canion
10) Dead rat
11) Rapid City - SDEA
12) Circle with lines in it as secret society at Scottsbluff
13) Kearney Triumps and warning
14) Student teaching at Grand Island

Compiled by Karen Miller, wife
kmm62@earthlink.net