As one of the speakers at his retirement dinner/roast as he concluded his career at Western Kentucky University several years ago, I talked about
the many ways Roy Dickey Reynolds had influenced my life. I closed by saying, “And I've almost forgiven him for it.”
As the day approached for his funeral, I once again reviewed the many roles I have played as an adult and thought about how facets of my life
might have been different had he not become an administrator at Russellville High School while I was a student there or had he not been the man who
recruited me to teach at my alma mater when I graduated from college.
Consider the following:
1) I had never really thought about being a high school teacher until he sent word by my mother that if I was interested in teaching, he had a place
for me on the RHS faculty. After 14 years as a high school teacher and 13 as a college teacher, I would have to say I was interested.
2) He directed my senior play and cast me in the lead role of the dad in Cheaper by the Dozen. When I became a teacher he made me drama
director and speech coach. After directing 35 full-length plays, coaching one of the largest speech teams in the state, and eventually becoming
executive director of the Kentucky High School Speech League, I'd have to say that role has been one of the biggest in my life.
3) Mr. Reynolds was my high school tennis coach. One of my duties as a rookie teacher in 1968 was to coach boys tennis. With his encouragement, I
started the girls tennis team the following year.
4) When he and I both realized that I was too limited vertically and too expansive horizontally to play competitive basketball, he made me official
scorer for the Panthers as a 15-year-old sophomore. When I became a teacher, he recommended to another of his protégées, Denny Doyle, that I become
part of his basketball bench staff by keeping extensive statistics. It was through Doyle and his successors, Wayne Mullen and Mickey Meguiar, that I
became involved in the inner working of basketball coaching, which has been important in my writing ever since. (Football coach Stumpy Baker already
knew me and did the same thing for me in that sport.)
5) When Lon Sosh asked me to join him and Pat O'Brien in broadcasting WRUS football, Mr. Reynolds voiced no objection. Then when I took on a side
job as sports editor of the local newspapers, he stood firm when then football coach Jim Gladden objected, contending that I was too closely involved
in the sports program at the high school and would reveal too many inside stories. My two vocations were left intact. I've been writing sports for over
four decades since and spent several years as the play-by-play guy for WRUS Sports. Every since then I've been a teacher who writes or a writer who
teaches.
6) I would travel with the Reynolds family and teachers Larry and Peggy Reeder to major league ball games to see Doyle play for the Phillies against
St. Louis and Cincinnati. We would spend time with Dennis and some of the team afterwards. That gave me an opportunity to learn to communicate with
professional athletes rather than be in awe of them, which proved invaluable in my journalistic endeavors.
7) When Mr. Reynolds resigned as RHS principal in 1971, I thought then how wonderful it would be to spend my last working years as an educator at
WKU. He was one of the first to congratulate me on becoming a full-time teacher at Western Kentucky University in 2007.
R.D. and Carole Reynolds' daughter Rhonda was one of my best friends in high school. I was at their home often, and they always made me feel
welcome. I watched Mark grow up and coached him in tennis. Their youngest daughter Michelle and her husband, David Bell, became members of our church
family while they worked here. The extended Reynolds clan has always made me feel like family.
It's been apparent in the out-pouring of love, respect and gratitude that has come since his sickness, his being transferred to Hospice of
Southern Kentucky, and his death that I am far from being alone in the way he influenced my life. Most of the readers of The LoJo would
naturally associate him with Russellville, but he only spent about 15 of his 85 years as a resident of Logan County. People from his native Caverna
count him as their own, as do the Greater WKU family
His obituary reads, “He was an inductee of the Cave City Hall of Fame and has a Cave City park named in his honor. He was incredibly influential
in the lives of thousands of students. Known as Roy Dickey, Coach, R.D., Roy and “D,” he was truly respected and loved for his wisdom and very strong
sense of humor.”
Cathy Carver, whose mother Hazel was a close friend of R.D. and Carole and often served as his ghost writer for special occasions, wrote on Facebook, “When I read his obituary, I found myself feeling jealous. I didn't want to share him with Cave City or Caverna or Western. I
wanted him all for RHS. But it's clear his positive influence extended to everyone he touched. Not just me, and not just my school. I'm very sorry to
have to say goodbye to such a remarkable man.”
Sarah Engler knew “Coach Reynolds” while he was teaching at Caverna. When she graduated from college, she called him to see if any teaching jobs
were available in Russellville. “He told me that Mr, Stevenson (Superintendent Robert E. Stevenson) didn't like to hire inexperienced teachers, but
that he would talk with him about me. It wasn't long until I got call that I had a job in Russellville. He had gotten it done. I've been ever since,”
she says almost 50 years later. The former Miss Engler became Mrs. Jim Riley early in her stay here and is retired after teaching in both the city and
county schools.
At WKU, Roy Reynolds teamed with David Mefford to run the office of University School Relations. The first two students they hired, Reynolds was
fond of recalling, were Freida Eggleston and Gary Ransdell. Those turned out to be good choices to spent time under his influence. Eggleston has been
the university's registrar for many years, and Ransdell is entrenched as the university president for as long as he wants to serve.
One of his student works whom he admired a great deal was Lewisburg High School graduate Alice Lynn Forgy. Now known as Sen. Alice Forgy Kerr, she
took time out from the current session of the Kentucky General Assembly Monday to sing at his funeral.
It was the role of University School Relations to recruit students and award scholarships. Countless leaders in business, education and life were
able to afford a college education because Roy Reynolds saw their potential and arranged financial assistance for them.
Mr. Reynolds had a wonderful sense of humor. He could growl as effectively as legendary Logan County High School Principal Bob Birdwhistell,
although maybe not as loudly. One of his favorite stories:
Ted Hornback, who was the long-time assistant coach to Ed Diddle, founded the Hilltopper Hundred Club, and became WKU athletic director, also
served as men's tennis coach. He came to Reynolds seeking an academic scholarship for a student in the region. “He had given me all these reasons the
kid deserved the scholarship and then added, 'And he's from this area and we need to do all we can to help area young people.' I thought, 'Your whole
team is from Scandinavia and I can't pronounce half their names, and you're saying we ought to help area students.' But I held my tongue.”
Sometimes he didn't hold that tongue, but almost always a good-natured laugh followed.
Roy Dickey Reynolds once told me he hoped to so live that he would be worthy of newspaper icon Al Smith writing his obituary. That didn't happen,
but he was pleased by what many of his former students wrote on Facebook after learning of his condition. (Family members read them to him while
he was hospitalized, and he reportedly was delighted.)
Here's what some of them had to say in an appropriate and moving obituary:
Nelson Weaver
: I hope R.D. knew the impact he had on the many who were blessed to cross his path. He is an example of what leadership in education should be.
His fingerprint is on every positive memory we have of RHS. He knew how to gain respect and love at the same time. That is a rare gift… I think of R/D.
as MY principal, My neighbor and MY friend. The outpouring of affection and respect on Facebook is testimony to the fact that R.D. made everyone
feel special. The fact is that he is the special one.
Steve Tattitch:
I am thinking of him and that brings nothing but warm and wonderful thoughts of a great High School experience and the Principal who helped make it
such a rich experience for all of us.
Sharon Milam Ray:
Mr. Reynolds was a wonderful Principal. He always had a smile on his face. Wonderful man!
Joyce Williams Chestnut:
He made a huge impact on many RHS students. Schools need more administrators like him today.
Lon Sosh:
He was one of the finest administrators the Kentucky educational system ever had or ever will have. He kept everything in order and yet his dry humor
and personality always made him someone you enjoyed being around. Mr. Reynolds impacted my life and hundreds of other people as well to use our
abilities and brain to the fullest.
Jeannie Leedom Bowles:
The entire Reynolds family always meant a lot to me, especially Carole and her dad, Mr. Guy Turner. I always felt like Mr. Reynolds really cared about
all of us.
Cathy Holmes:
Mr. Reynolds lives on in all of us who will forever cherish our years at RHS with him at the helm. He was a lovely man.
Ann Pember (whose mother, Eleanor Piper, was a mainstay of the faculty):
He was a very special man and a special educator for so many who went through RHS. He was also good to and with his staff.
Mary Beth Dowden:
Mr. Reynolds is dear to any student who had the pleasure of knowing him as principal and as friend.
Gary Arnold:
Mr. Roy Reynolds was very helpful to me in my high school years. His kind manner and thoughtful words are still with me today.
Rita Stratton:
Love Mr. Reynolds! Use to tease him at the Doctor's office that I was getting revenge each time I gave him an injection.... Of course there was nothing
to get revenge FOR! He's a true gentleman!
Keith Carver:
I have so much admiration for R.D., his quick wit and common sense.
Susan Neal Clapp:
Mr. Reynolds is one of the most remarkable men I've ever known. I can still remember the wit too, and just had some of the best times in his presence
Pat Pepper Boleware:
Truly a wonderful man. Great role model to all of us crazy teenagers in the 60's… He could put the fear of God in us one minute and have us laughing
the next! We need a lot of Mr. Reynolds today in our schools!
Judy Blankenship Kirkland:
I babysat for Michelle during my high school years. I worked as office girl during all 4 years of high school as well as babysat and worked at the
Tastee Treet. Mr. Reynolds treated everyone fairly and was the best principal anyone could ask for.
Martha Weaver Carter:
I remember admiring Mr. Reynolds at school and then the family moving across the street from us. Must admit being a little nervous but it was great. I
also was a babysitter for Michelle. Mark told me he was too old for a sitter (very politely). I felt very honored!
Buddy Shaw:
He was one of the first people I met from WKU when I was considering attending school there. He was such a sincere and genuine person, and I considered
him a friend from that moment on.
Marvin Dennison (1969 RHS graduate and long-time administrator at University Heights Academy):
Mr. Reynolds was the model for what many of us have tried to be in our own careers. While we may have tried, he consistently succeeded!"
Carmen Austin McFadyen
: Mr. Reynolds was one of my true advocates when I was a student. He stood up for me when other teachers wouldn't. I truly admired him!
Bob Birdwhistell:
I found Mr. Reynolds to be one of the finest persons, both as a friend and educator, that i had the privilege to know in 40 years in education...they
just did not come any better!