An Indelible Influence

Elise Krause `04 working with students.

Editor’s note: We asked alumni to share their memories of the lasting influences the faculty of Wayland’s English Department had on them. Many stories, funny, sweet, and inspiring poured in. We’ve selected a number to share and hope they remind you of happy memories of campus as well as the lasting influence and benefit of your Wayland experience.

English with Mr. Patterson H`72 was my first class of the day and Shakespeare and the importance of language, words and storytelling was everything to me, my imagination, my communication and my future as an individual who chose a career in Filmmaking. I’m forever grateful to him and his lasting impression on me.

FELICIA LINSKY `79

I can’t name a specific instance, but I am considered one of the best writers in my field of undergraduate study here at Kansas State. I know the military didn’t give me that gift, so it must originate with my amazing teachers at Wayland!

SCOTT MILLAR `82

Mr. Patterson gave me the gift of telling me to make a journal of words while reading. This became a habit of mine. My vocabulary is better because of his “suggestion.” I wasn’t wild about the idea at the time. It was when he assigned Return of the Native, I believe. I remember many of the words from that particular assignment.

JOHN SINGLETON `75

Linda Fischer H `92

While reading Gogol’s Dead Souls, Mr. Patterson taught us the term “nihilism.” I became a philosophy teacher. And nobody taught Shakespeare’s murder scenes more dramatically than Mr. Proctor, as he fell out his first-floor window.

TODD WILEY `71

When I was a junior, I had Ms. Krause `04 for English. One day, she stopped me in the library, sat me down, and told me the paper I turned in was B quality, but that she knew I was an A quality writer. She challenged me to work harder and raise my standard... which I eventually did. Now I work in communications where I’m constantly writing. Thanks Ms. Krause! Mr. Proctor H`07, “never write ‘the reason is because...’” has always stuck with me. This was useful writing many papers as a history major in college. I didn’t struggle in the freshman writing sections as most of my peers did, thanks to all of the writing we did at Wayland. I also learned how to transition from one topic/section/ paragraph to another.

ALEX DERR `12

David Proctor H`07

I also have a memorable, (unfavorite?) memory of Mr. Patterson during my senior year. We had to read Crime and Punishment over Christmas break. The first day back he gave us a college level exam that some of my classmates learned, to their sorrow, could not be passed if you had only read the Cliff Notes version. I still say that was a crime and a punishment.

ANTONIA “TONI” FREDERICK HOUSTON `77

John Patterson H`72 with a student.

We were reading Tom Sawyer in Mr. Patterson’s class and we set up the desk to represent a raft and read in class. It opened my mind. Discover in your mind what you’re reading and live it, enjoy it.

Mr. Schantz H`85 assigned us to write a paper on how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. He then would act out as his uncle who never had or made the sandwich. He would make it exactly as written. It taught me how to think before write something and think about who might be reading it. These experiences at Wayland were very important lessons for me in my life.

DAVID SNOW `84

During my Freshman year English class with Miss Nancy Klosterman (later Nancy Nissalke) gave a pop quiz which caught me unprepared and embarrassed. Miss Klosterman spied me in my back outside row seat, with my text open in my lap, trying to crib.

Very gently she whispered, in a voice I’m almost sure no one but me heard, “You weren’t trying to cheat, were you?” I was caught red-handed but stammered out some lame denial anyway.

“I didn’t think so,” said Miss K. with a smile, and she and I never spoke of the incident again. Nor, to the best of my knowledge, did any of the other students ever find out it happened.

I’m not even sure if everyone will agree with Miss K’s approach today. But it worked. To the best of my recollection I never cheated again, through four years at Wayland, four years of college and three years of law school.

Thank you for your grace Miss Klosterman. You could easily and justifiably have crushed me on the spot, but you chose a more compassionate, and ultimately more enlightening, path with an immature, fragile 14-year old. God bless you.

BOB JOHNSTONE `61

Mr. Proctor taught so much more than just English. Would it even be possible to buy a jewel as rare and precious? Without much ado, in the process of being himself, Boston Brahmin was incorporated in class. French phrases would be mixed in with the course of conversation. One common example was the simple, “Où est le papier?” We got history lessons on WWII as he shared his life experiences. We received lessons in the history of English and on class management. If a (first hour) student was late, he would send someone to “knock him up” referencing the pre-alarm clock era job of “knocker-up.” A knocker-up’s job was to rouse sleeping people so they could get to work on time. From Wikipedia: “The knocker-up used a baton or short, heavy stick to knock on the clients’ doors or a long and light stick, often made of bamboo, to reach windows on higher floors. At least one of them used a pea-shooter.”

MELISSA WISSELL OVERSON `77

Roger VanHaren H`84

Roger VanHaren H`84 taught me to diagram a sentence properly.

Linda Fischer H`92 taught me to read and comprehend for content and subtext.

John Patterson H `72 taught me to write from the head and heart.

CARRI LEE CARL `81

Mr. Schantz taught honors senior English, and I think he had to adjust his expectations down. He gave us a big essay test on The Canterbury Tales. On the day we expected him to hand the test back, he told us we hadn’t gotten it. None of us. In all of the papers, there were a few good observations, but, he said, “they were like pearls in a dung heap.” It was a lesson in the power of words.

PATRICK SINGLETON `78

Robert Schantz H`85