The Delevan E. Whaley Award for Excellence in Teaching at Hartford High School
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| Ray Stanford '63 Makes Award Presentation to Paul Keane |
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| Ray Stanford '63, Byron Hathorn '67, Dave Briggs '64, Paul Keane |
Good morning. We are here to relate a story and make an announcement we think you will find interesting and rather unique. We on this stage represent several classes of Hartford High School graduating in the 1960’s: Ray Stanford ’63, Dave Briggs ’64, and Byron Hathorn ’67.
Ray is a former Peace Corps Volunteer and now a Property Manager. Byron is a Vietnam Vet and now Builder-Developer. He is also one of the top Master ski racers in the country. I’m a former Army Engineer Officer and now an Innkeeper. We point these things out just to show what can happen down the road from your Hartford days.
Along with an impressive number of others from our era we have come to realize something special we all hold in common. That thing is the enduring positive impact of a certain teacher from our Hartford High School days. This teacher taught us English but also helped our generation start a Ski Club and out of that the revival of a long dormant Hartford Ski Team.
The teacher’s name is Delevan E. Whaley, Jr. Today he resides in retirement in Portland, Maine. Upon leaving Hartford we lost touch with him except for a few chance contacts with classmates who would report in on him. Although those occurrences were rare and not often communicated, the impact of this man’s teaching kept being recalled at reunions, in letters and in numerous conversations over the decades. Even though our world had been turned upside down and disrupted by the war in Vietnam and we became more mobile and out of touch, the gifts brought to us by Mr. Whaley factored in our personal and intellectual development. His lessons remained prevalent in our thinking. This teacher had made a truly remarkable difference!
Prior to his days at Hartford High School Mr. Whaley had served and fought as a ski trooper with the famous 10th Mountain Division in Italy in WWII. He attained his BA degree in English at Syracuse University.
The hallmarks of his legacy with us were: exposure to great literature, the encouragement to express ourselves in writing, a sense of humor and playfulness, the optimism to form a ski club and team, the courage to speak truth to power and the importance of mutual respect between teacher and pupil.
A few years ago, thanks to the miracle of the internet and e-mail, it was confirmed that Mr. Whaley remained a legendary figure in the eyes of many people for all the great contributions he had made to our lives. Off and on, people spoke of trying to find him and to re-connect. This past spring, after well over 40 years, that idea finally came to fruition in the form of a reunion featuring the great man himself. He was greeted here in White River Junction by about 25 HHS grads from not only here in the Upper Valley but the whole country including Nebraska and California.
In the spirit of all he taught us we named our ad hoc reunion group “The Live Poets Society” reflective of the Robin Williams Movie “Dead Poets Society”. Mr. Whaley himself was quick to express how gratified he was by the name since he was in fact still alive after all. And he readily agreed to attend our reunion. The reunion featured an afternoon of reading poetry and literary pieces. Mr. Whaley read from his volumes of poems written over the years and we, his students, brought forth our own work.
During the time leading up to this extraordinary reunion event we further realized that amazing teachers, although not common enough to be taken for granted, do come along at a steady pace and they deserve to be recognized; their gifts to all of us are formidable. Indeed our society is buttressed by excellence in teaching. With that we decided it would be fitting to begin an award that would call for truly excellent teachers to be confirmed in public. And so we are here today to make an announcement. The Live Poets Society, so-called, will convene with the administration of Hartford High School to develop appropriate criteria and standards for an award to be called The Delevan E. Whaley, Jr. Award for Excellence in Teaching at Hartford High School. We will present HHS with a plaque which can hang in the hallowed halls of our alma mater with honored names posted for all to see.
We therefore encourage faculty, administrators and students to nominate those who impress with their Excellence in Teaching for recognition in the name of Mr. Delevan E. Whaley, Jr. We would remind all to not limit nominations to current members of the faculty but to past ones as well. Indeed we bring proof that greatness is long remembered and valued and therein lies its true measure.
To begin on this path of recognition we told the administration we would like to call for the nomination of a teacher to be the first to receive this award (and to meet Mr. Whaley himself insofar as he was happily still alive). While retaining the highest standards of excellence to properly honor Mr. Whaley we also told them about Mr. Whaley, his style, his substance and how we had been so thoroughly enriched by him. Accordingly we are here today to not only inaugurate the award but to name publicly the first ever recipient.
After having received the nomination and after having introduced this person to Mr. Whaley we are delighted in the choice on all counts. Today we would like him to come forth to receive our congratulations and your applause for his excellence in teaching.
The First Delevan E. Whaley Award for Excellence in Teaching at Hartford High is therefore, hereby, made to: Mr. Paul Keane.
By: The Live Poets Society
June 15, 2011 Hartford High School White River Junction, Vermont
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Twenty-five Years as a Vermont English Teacher
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| Beneatha in A Raisin in the Sun, Hartford High School, 2011 |
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| Sargeant Pepper (every Halloween at HHS from 1987-2011) |
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| Editing student papers at HHS, circa 1995 |
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| Lord of a Renaissance Feast, Whitcomb High School, 1986-87 |
Letter from Former Student, Ryan Peterson '95
(posted with his permission)
