This book tells the life story of a man who was born to first and second generation immigrant parents, was raised in two small Kansas towns, and became an influential proponent of educational reform worldwide. The book follows his career from his beginning as a high school social studies teacher and football coach to the developer of curriculum materials used in high school classrooms throughout the United States to his role as an active player in the Cold War to his eventual position as a university administrator and professor. The book provides details of the author's efforts to reform American education within a single high school, within a university, across the United States, and among educational systems abroad; descriptions of his exploits will help the reader understand why reforming education is a difficult process. The book also contains a love story; a tale of courtship and marriage followed by descriptions of some of the joys and challenges of raising three children. This author provides a vivid description of what it means to care for a spouse suffering from Alzheimer's disease. The result is a heart-wrenching account of a man providing tender care for the one he loves, one who no longer knows or loves him.

The Best That I Can Recall

A ReminiscenceBy Howard D. Mehlinger

AuthorHouse

Copyright © 2009 Howard D. Mehlinger
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4389-9060-6

Contents

Acknowledgments................................................................ixCredits........................................................................xiPreface........................................................................xiiiChapter 1: The Impact of Time and Place........................................3Chapter 2: My Immediate Family.................................................21Chapter 3: My Extended Family..................................................44Chapter 4: School and College..................................................59Chapter 5: Friends.............................................................73Chapter 6: Athletics...........................................................86Chapter 7: Jobs................................................................99Chapter 8: Courtship and Marriage..............................................112Chapter 9: My Introduction to Lawrence High School.............................127Chapter 10: Teaching at Lawrence High School...................................143Chapter 11: Coaching at Lawrence High School...................................163Chapter 12: A Few Recollections of Family Life in Lawrence.....................178Chapter 13: Earning a PhD in Lawrence..........................................197Chapter 14: Project Social Studies in Pittsburgh...............................209Chapter 15: NCA Foreign Relations Project in Chicago...........................225Chapter 16: Inter-University Committee on Travel Grants........................241Chapter 17: High School Curriculum Center in Government........................262Chapter 18: Social Studies Development Center..................................282Chapter 19: School of Education................................................298Chapter 20: Center for Excellence in Education.................................339Chapter 21: Foreign Entanglements..............................................372Chapter 22: The Mehlinger Family in Indiana....................................425Chapter 23: Continuing to be a Professional....................................449Chapter 24: In Sickness and in Health..........................................462Chapter 25: Reflections on a Life..............................................481

Chapter One

The Impact of Time and Place

Life is a crapshoot. The game begins when a spermatozoon races his colleagues up a fallopian tube in search of a hospitable egg. Which spermatozoon wins the race and the quality of the egg that welcomes the winner has consequences. And then the environment enters the game. It sets conditions that first affect whether the ovum and, nine months later, the helpless infant will grow and prosper, or wither and die. While no one can predict whether heredity or environment will have the greater influence in any particular case, both are important. Many of the factors that will determine the eventual outcome, including individual motivation, are largely indiscernible and immeasurable. All the same, life is a craps game in which the dice are often loaded.

I was fortunate to be born where, when, and to whom I was. I was born an American and grew to maturity in small, Midwestern towns. Being born in 1931 provided unanticipated advantages. I was born too late to experience personally the horrors of World War II as a member of the armed forces, while profiting from the economic and population boom that followed the war. I was blessed with devoted parents, a loving brother, a supportive extended family, many friends, inspiring mentors, and talented colleagues. While our family had modest resources, my father had a steady job, providing our family with economic security during an insecure period in American history. We were certainly not rich, but I never felt poor.

During the first 22 years of my life, I lived in two, small, Kansas towns: Marion and McPherson, the county seats of adjoining rural counties. For 22 years, I rarely strayed beyond those two communities and their rural environs.

Marion was the smaller of the two communities; it had approximately 2000 residents, about the same number as today. McPherson was five times larger; it had approximately 10,000 residents and boasted two small colleges. Marion's economy was based primarily on agriculture; McPherson had two oil refineries to support its economy in addition to agriculture. Clearly, McPherson was the wealthier of the two communities, but during the Great Depression, both communities prospered relatively when compared to many other American towns and cities.

I should have been born in Marion. It was where my parents lived, and where I was to live, until I was fifteen years old and we moved to McPherson. Nevertheless, according to my birth certificate, I was born in Hillsboro, Kansas on August 22, 1931, and I have the hospital receipt to confirm it.

Hillsboro, ten miles west of Marion, was a slightly smaller community than my home town. Hillsboro was known throughout Marion County as the site of the annual Marion County fair and the home of Tabor College. I don't know why my parents chose Salem Deaconess Hospital in Hillsboro over the Marion hospital. Perhaps it was because Salem Deaconess Hospital was a stand-alone, three-story brick structure staffed by Mennonite nurses, while the Marion hospital occupied the second floor of a building, which also housed a furniture store, and was staffed by more worldly nurses. Perhaps it was merely cheaper to give birth in Hillsboro. The total hospital charges for my delivery and a two-week hospitalization was $33.73. I think it was a bargain.

Being born in Hillsboro has caused me problems my entire life. Whenever I am asked to respond to the question - "place of birth?" - I have never been certain whether to respond "Hillsboro" or "Marion." After all, the only time I spent in Hillsboro was the first two weeks of my life when I was in the hospital with my mother, whereas I spent 15 years of my life in Marion. Where a person emerges from the womb seems less important to me than where he spends his youth. If I had been born en route to the Hillsboro hospital, I suppose that I would have to answer the birth question by stating I was born in an automobile somewhere between Marion and Hillsboro. In any case, I prefer to think that I was born in Marion, despite what my birth certificate claims.

For those who lived in Marion at that time, there was only one important question regarding place of residence, "Do you live on the hill or in the valley?" If you lived in the valley, you should expect to have flood water occasionally in your home; whereas if you lived on the hill, you were safely above the flood waters.

Two rivers ran through Marion: Mud Creek and the Cottonwood River. The Cottonwood was the larger stream; it flowed along the western edge of town. Mud Creek, which was probably a branch of the Cottonwood, sliced through the center of town. Neither the Creek nor the River carried much water during most of the year; indeed, it would have been easy for an adult to walk across either stream bed except following a heavy rainfall. However, whenever Marion County had a big downpour, Marion residents prepared for the inevitable flood.

One night, our family was watching a movie at the Kaw Theater, the only movie theater in Marion. Suddenly the film stopped, the house lights came on, and the manager announced...