Dixon

The King of the Castle

The Start

Long before he was known as Dr. Grady, a young man from Amboy was an inexperienced math teacher and assistant basketball coach at Dixon High School. In just his third year teaching, he began what would become a lifelong career in education at DHS.

Mike Grady started his career in Dixon in 1991 as a math teacher and assistant boys basketball coach for the Dukes. After several years he moved into an administrative role and became the dean of students, a job he held until he took over as the school’s principal in 2003. The rest, as they say, is history.

Along the Way

31 years. 372 months. 11,315 days. That’s how long Dr. Grady has been a part of our school. In fact, for many of these years he was not only a part of our school, but was the educational leader of our school. Over the course of this time he no doubt made a lifetime of memories.

GRADY cont’d to page 14

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Teacher institute days. Students in math class. Daily announcements. Watching his own children go through DHS. Helping students with math. Lunch supervision. Good days and bad days. Sporting events and senior nights. Band concerts, fall plays and spring musicals. Dr. Grady has seen, heard, and participated in them all. Graduation speeches. State champions and teams who struggled. Student discipline. Bad jokes (which are legendary!). Lunch detentions and school assemblies. Teachers who have come and gone. Retirement parties. Coaches. Megaphone announcements from “Math Man.” Immeasurable impacts on countless students. Snow days. A global pandemic and E-learning. Failed school initiatives and successful school initiatives. Board meetings, tough decisions, building changes, and awards nights. Supporting and leading his school after a school shooting. Mourning the loss of students and celebrating their individual successes. Through all of these things and many more, Dr. Grady has been here and done that.

In addition to the great administrator that Dr. Grady has been, he’s also been keeping a secret through all of these years: DR. GRADY IS CORN COB CARL! CORN COB CARL IS DR. GRADY! His commitment to DHS over the years proves that Mike will do whatever it takes to reach a student, empower a teacher, or bring a smile to someone’s face, and he doesn’t take himself too seriously while doing it.

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Final Hoorah

The 2021-2022 school year marks Dr. Grady’s 33rd year in education, with 31 of those at Dixon High School. In a world where change is inevitable and many adult Americans switch jobs and careers up to six or seven times, one thing has been constant at DHS: Mike Grady. This school year will be his final one. Dr. Grady officially retires at the end of the 2021-2022 school year.

At the end of their careers, many people are tempted to rest, ride it out, and be content with whatever happens around them, knowing that they have limited time left. That is certainly not the case with Dr. Grady. While he is excited for the new chapter in his life, he is attacking his last year in school with the same energy, effort, and passion that he always has. You can routinely find him doing student discipline at the start of the day, followed by supervising lunch detention where he helps students with missing homework. He can oftentimes be seen meeting with teachers and staff, listening to questions or issues that may arise, and working to find solutions to keep DHS moving forward.

Although the old saying goes, “You don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone,” we are well aware of what we have had with Dr. Grady as our principal, and will miss him when this year is over. He has given his professional career to our kids, teachers, staff, and Dixon High School. His impact will long be felt and we appreciate all that he has done along the way.

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