ResearchInfo: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance | Documents

Following the Footsteps of My Mentor, Professor Sarah Vinke: My Life as an English Teacher, and Other Memories, By Robert Dennis Gary, usually just Dennis Gary. BS, Montana State College, 1960; MS, University of Oregon, 1964.

We Are Saddened To Report That Robert Dennis Gary Passed Away In Jan 9, 2020, Likely From Covid19. You May Read About His Life => A Robert Dennis Gary Memorial Tribute Page & Autobiography : ALSO PLEASE SEND EMAIL To HenryG__USCA.edu With Your Memories Of Dennis. Click Here.

I. Introduction
II. Bernadine Noggle, a Sarah VInke "Vinkesque" Character in My Life.
III. RE: Teaching English.
IV. Down Amongst Dead Men. (Sarah Vinke in Her Rightful Place in History)
V. A Thought on Vinke and Pirsig Being Featured in MSU "Mountains and Minds" Magazine.
VI. Sarah Vinke's Reading Recommendations.
VII. Leslie Fielder, An Article By Him Being Banned to Speak at MSC.
VIII. Mrs. Renne's Book Store.
IX. Personal Notes Of Dennis Gary And Communication With Site Master Henry Gurr.
X. Links to Other Related Memories.

INTRODUCTION

Since the publication of my original memories webpage, “The Sarah Vinke Of My Student Days”,, other memories have occurred regarding my student years (1959-63) at Montana State College. These include members of the teaching faculty such as Sarah Vinke, Robert Pirsig, and others.

During the give and take of researching, writing webpages, and discussing these with Henry Gurr, more of memories “popped-up”, with examples from my own life that relate (somehow) to the Bozeman Montana events and persons mentioned in the book “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance” (ZMM) and the events it describes.

Here then, “nearly twelve months down the road”, the following are my collected memories and “insights”.

Again, I hope these contribute to both the knowledge and understanding of ZMM and MOQ, as well as a personal view into what it was like at MSC back then.

Dennis Gary 15 Sept 2010
Former English Major at Montana State College (MSC),
Now Montana State University (MSU).

Bernadine Noggle, a Sarah Vinke “Vinkesque” Character in My Life.

A Vinkesque, Vinke-like, character in my life was Bernadine Noggle, head of the English Department at Klamath Union High School. She was something of a mother figure for me in my first two years away from home, without a mother. A Stanford graduate, she could walk down the hall with the composure of the Queen Mother of England, even with cherry bombs going off all around her.

She backed me up against other English Department faculty members, and on at least one occasion, against the administration. She was so happy to have a teacher who wasn't doing the same old routine the students had been exposed to since the fifth grade. She told me that (to many students) she was not the head of the English Department so much as the neighbor lady working in her garden on weekends. She said a steady stream of students and parents were stopping by and telling her how English was different this year: English was fun and a challenge. Two faculty members at Oregon Technical Institute were pleased that their daughter was being challenged and taught/encouraged to think critically. On the other hand, she told me that those old bags on the faculty who were complaining about me were more interested in their vacuum cleaners than their students.

Mrs. Noggle told me when I went to leave after my second year at KUHS, that I had contributed more to the improvement of the English curriculum than any other of the sixteen department members, including some ideas specifically from MSC. She said I came closer to the goals of Dr. Roland Bartel of the University of Oregon English Department than any of the teachers whose way she had paid to take a course from him. Years later, I took the course she mentioned from Dr. Bartel and he later told a school superintendent that I was the best student he ever had in a course on Literary Criticism for High School Teachers. Curiously, I had disagreed with him on one occasion, but I gave my reasons and he liked that.

When the principal of KUHS told Mrs. Noggle that he was thinking of not asking me back for a second year, she told him that that might well be the biggest mistake he ever made and that if he did not offer me a contract, she would personally go to the school board and ask it to issue me a contract. And she told him that she would not be alone, that there would be faculty members from Oregon Tech at her side. I got the second year contract, and the principal the second year told me how happy he was that he had offered me the contract.

Mrs. Noggle said she had told the principal, "Mr. Gary's problem is that he believes in teaching school, not tending school. Students in Klamath Falls aren't used to that."

Sounds a bit like Vinke standing up for Shirley Luhrsen and / or Robert Pirsig, when the chips were down.
See Persons -Events English Dept, Montana State College1945 t-69: Scroll Down To => Shirley Luhrsen 2nd Let.

See Letters To Fm Robert Pirsig: Scroll To => 15 Sept 2008

That second year, I got the cream of the crop in my college prep section again. I mentioned to two counselors that I realized it was a snafu; that I got the best class last year! [But it also] seemed I had done so again the second year. One counselor looked at the other and said, “Should we tell him?” The other said, “Let’s.” They told me that sometime near the midpoint of the previous year, they had started getting calls from parents and junior high counselors asking how they (the parents) could get their student into my class. The staff had initially thought this wasn't right, considering the other teachers, but then thought: Why not give them what they want? The counselors said they were more than pleased with their decision.

One of them added that I was unusually sensitive to those with serious psychological problems, and that my reports on such students were always analytic (like a clinical report) in nature, not punitive.

RE: Teaching English

I once told my (above-mentioned) first college prep English class, preparatory to taking their first open book essay test on literature:

"Tell me what you think, not what I think. I know what I think. Tell me what you think. On these questions you must take a stand. Don't write on both sides of the issue or I will mark you down. I will give you a good grade so long as you can document what you say with examples, details, quotes. Just don't ignore a major part of the text." These ninth graders, fourteen-year-olds, actually liked this approach, and thrived on it (re: the teacher that made the difference discussion).

The disadvantage of the test was the time it took to correct; and in later years, I shortened the test.

Before handing tests back, I would read answers to the class that I particularly liked.

The success of the approach was demonstrated once, after showing to the class a film of Shakespeare's “Julius Caesar.” A student approached me afterward and said he had been following the movie with a copy of the play and found a speech left out of the movie. I told him that was not uncommon. But the student said the speech was important to the meaning of the play. What did I think? I replied that I thought the fact that he cared enough to do this and arrive at a judgment was very encouraging to me.

Truthfully, I was too engrossed in the movie to notice, but did go back over the part and saw the student's point. But again, I still believe the important thing was the student doing this.

This reminds me of another young instructor in the English Dept. during Pirsig's years at MSC. His name alludes me, though I can see his face.

Whatever his reasons, he liked to talk to me about his problems teaching composition, possibly with a view of helping me avoid the same in my future teaching.

He had studied under Porter Perrin of the University of Washington, author of a Scott Foreman writing text titled “Writer’s Guide.” It was distinctive for using examples of good composition from published writers.

At any rate, the young instructor while teaching composition at Washington had voiced his frustrations to Perrin about having to practically bleed red ink all over the compositions of his students and to no avail.

Perrin told him he would correct his next set of compositions for him to give him an idea of what to do. When returned they had virtually no corrections and somewhat higher grades on them. On one paper, Perrin had corrected none of the grammatical errors, but had marked several paragraphs with the comment, "You are learning to think!" He told the young instructor there was no point in marking up poorly constructed sentences until a student had mastered the thinking process, at which point the writing process should automatically improve and be subject to understandable corrections.

Pirsig in ZMM voices his frustration with teaching formal composition. I did have some success teaching formal rules of composition but always prefaced by such comments as: “These rules will never make you a Hemingway or Faulkner or get you the Nobel Prize. Get learning the rules out of the way so that knowing them you can break them for good reason. If an outline isn't working, change the outline. You are supposed to be the language's master. It is not supposed to be your master.”

It worked for me. But I have early in our emails stated that I viewed my purpose was not to tell the students what to say, but to help them say what they wanted to say in the best way possible.

At the beginning of the course, I would have students write for a few minutes each day whatever came to their minds on a topic of my choice (or sometimes theirs) and hand in the papers. I would check them off in the grade book, but only grade a few each day reading them aloud and commenting on them as I marked them. Again, as a warm-up to formal composition, it seemed a good technique. I wonder what Vinke would think in view of her article on teaching speech?

In a recent email Henry Gurr cc'd to me about William James, John Dewey, etc. There was the comment that K-12 teachers are not the best. Wayne O'Neill, then of Oregon and later of Harvard and MIT, worked a lot with K-12 teachers and told me that the reason many talented students did not do well in high school English was that they were more intelligent than their teachers. He was dumbfounded when monitoring a class that when the students couldn't agree on a correct answer, the teacher had them vote on it!

There is some sign of revolt here in California with the practice of evaluating students and schools through the current standardized testing process, resulting in teaching students how to pass the test rather than the skills and knowledge required by the subject. [To this HSG adds “Indeed! Signs of Low Quality” !!]

In a one-day job substitute teaching, I caught an error in the textbook and taught the correct way with examples on the board. The next week the regular teacher got my phone number from the district and called to thank me. He then said that he had turned my action into an example of academic integrity and intellectual honesty for his students. You would have gotten paid anyway, but you made the effort, he told me. [To this HSG adds “YES !! Sighs of High Quality” !!]

RE: Perrin. When at Courtland, I adopted a series of Scott, Foresman literature books he had consulted on. The students and parents both liked the new books. One student said the only problem was that the parents grabbed the book when they brought it home and would not give it back until they were ready to go to bed, making the students stay up past their own bedtime.

But an assistant superintendent of another California high school district told me that I should have selected the Harcourt series instead because they gave better cocktail parties at teacher conventions. I had met this superintendent at the University of Oregon. He told me he always timed recruiting at Oregon to coincide the with the Oregon state high school basketball tournament. [To this HSG adds “Indeed! Signs of Low Quality” !!]

Down Amongst the Dead Men

If you Google “The Divine Sarah”, you will currently come up with Sarah Bernhardt and Sarah Vaughn. Maybe with our pages, Sarah Vinke will be joining them soon? Stranger things have been foretold. [To this HSG adds YES Indeed!! Reality Is Stranger Than We Can Imagine! ]

Related to Sarah Vinke, being a “forgotten person”: A favorite composer of mine, Charles Alkan, after years of neglect had his music played / featured by the BBC shortly before World War II. This radio program was produced in response to a study (book / article? ) called “Down Amongst the Dead Men.” This was about forgotten men of historical note. Those BBC radio piano transcriptions were lost or destroyed during World War II, but several pianists took up his cause in the 1960's and his music is now available in good recordings by excellent musicians. It is often noted that he is long overdue for a revaluation as one of the great composers of the 19th Century, also that style-wise his pieces frequently jump a hundred years into the middle of the 20th Century.

Also, Winston Churchill was listed as one of the “has-beens” of the 20th Century in the charter issue of LIFE Magazine in 1936.

All of which is to say, maybe we've launched Sarah to her rightful place in history. Let's hope.

HSG adds: "I agree: Maybe we've launched Sarah to her rightful place in history. Let's hope." !!!!

Notes on Sarah Vinke, or Robert Pirsig, Being Featured In MSU “Mountains And Minds” Magazine:

It's been three months, and I guess no response from the MSU Bozeman writer Re Our request to publish a story on Sarah.

I do remember Sarah's response when a classmate of mine handed her a wedding invitation was one of delight, but with a comment to the effect, "Who would have thought that an old bag like me would ever again be a member of a wedding party.”

Also I remember sitting in a classroom across from Pirsig and hearing groans from his students. A woman in my class remarked that her husband was in that class.
For Example: Click Here To Read => The Views of Two Montana State College Students, Concerning Their Participation In Robert Pirsig's English Class(s) Fall 1959 or Spring 1960.

Sarah Vinke's Recommendations For Summer Reading.

BOOKS I’VE ENJOYED

Another favorite book of Sarah's was Rats, Lice, And History. Click Here For A Very Long & Good Review Article, Which Is An Enthusiastic Evaluation Of The Very Great Significance Of This Book!!
…ATTENTION => The following is normal and ok for your computer => When you ClickOn the above Blue Link, an automatic PDF SaveAs. will show-up on your Computer Screen: And in the File Name Line will be => AD-1103
…DATE-LINE Oct 5, 2023: I successfully completed this SaveAs. and with no other ill effects, was able to read this excellent B ook Review in full.

Leslie Fiedler

Leslie Fiedler was the University of Montana professor banned from speaking on the MSC campus. However, he spoke instead across from the campus at the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity house. I went to hear him and afterward wrote an article on his talk for “The Exponent,” the Montana State College newspaper, although it had not been assigned by the editor. Nevertheless, it appeared in the next issue along with another unrelated article that I had been assigned. As I have noted before, Roland R. Renne, president of the college, told me on a separate issue that he would in no way censor my writing. Whether he read the article on Fiedler, I do not know. But Renne remained just as friendly to me as before. Considering that the Board of Regents did not like Fiedler, maybe banning him was the politically correct thing for Renne to do. But then he could not, or did not, try to prevent the talk from taking place at the Lambda Chi house. At any rate, though unassigned, the editor of “The Exponent” printed my Fiedler story, with my byline.
See Also Dennis Gary’s Memories, Related to “Radicals” on the MSC Campus.

Mrs. Renne's Book Store

Mrs. Renne's bookstore called, “The Book Shelf”, was something else: It was the only other book store in downtown Bozeman. to being in a section of Phillips Office Supply.
… Mrs. Renne rebelled against Merriam-Webster Dictionaries, and when they threatened to remove their dictionaries from her store, if she continued to handle rival dictionaries, which were then making an appearance. So you could find Webster's New World, Random House, and American Heritage at her store but no M-W.

Mrs. Renne once suggested to a customer that, instead of giving a tiny pocket Bible as a gift, she should buy one that people could actually read. The customer walked out.

Mrs. Renne was the wife of MSC (MSU) President, Roland R. Renne.

More About President Renne Can Be Found Here =>

Dennis Gary's Personal Notes Added to His Emails to Henry Gurr, Re Authoring This & Other Of His ZMMQ WebPages.

Looking back over the amount of work we have done since October 25, 2009, the accomplishment has been phenomenal! I still take pleasure in reading my first email and your subsequent response!!

By the way, I noticed the 25th anniversary edition of ZMM on the shelf at Borders Bookstore. Pirsig, in a forward, corrects several concepts, and even mentions Henry (not William) James: And mentions a literary device used in “Turn of the Screw” as well as ZMM. Then too some modifications in final part of ZMM.
…Also Pirsig of all people, refers to a website: http://www.moq.org/
.
[HSG Comment => I placed this idea in my "Literary Devices" email for future response from ZMM Enthusiasts, and move forward.]

In mid journey, we really got involved in a detective type hunt for info on Sarah, which proved accurate once you unearthed the [MSU] Archives File. The important thing, of course, is that it brought you back to that file, though it’s nice to know that our Googling detective skills were good. Perhaps after a breather, you will find place for those Sarah letters we turned up: Re Mississippi Dem Freedom Party, and A Letter To A Bozeman Mother, Which You [Henry Gurr] Got From Shirley Luhrsen.

I could use some positive movement in my personal life just now, but guess that a patient, wait-and-see approach is what I am faced with.

Our interaction is good for me: RE: My new memories3 page and/or values page. Perhaps when you get time you can outline your plan.
…Will you be putting my email material in a folder for further editing as before or what? Things tend to get scattered, though the stream of consciousness method of my emails seems to bring up relevant points and good, if strange connections.

At mid day it is time for me to get outside. (Signed) Dennis

SIDE NOTE: Dennis Gary To Henry Gurr =>
… “The below may belong in my first MEMORIES1 PAGE. Your choice. I put this here, to get this out in my email, and start work on it.”

A) Concerning [Robert Pirsig’s Story, In A May 3, 1987 Letter To The Authors Of "Guidebook to Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance". Reported =>
… "I am a mystic,” Sarah J. Vinke once said to me, at a faculty party, when there wasn't much to talk about. “You can't be a mystic,” I said, “a mystic doesn't define himself as anything.” She thought about this and said, “You're right. I am not a mystic.” She smiled a little, and that was the last thing she ever said on the subject."
******
Dennis Gary’s Statement =>
…I remember this [above mention Robert Pirsig] conversation taking place at the faculty party I attended! (described in my 1st Memories1 doc.)

Coming from a rural Montana background, I did not know what a mystic was, and Sarah walked off before I could ask her. Being uncomfortable around Pirsig, I looked around for some other faculty member to ask and chose Dr. Oviatt of the History Department.

His response, after a brief hesitation was, "Look it up in the dictionary."

This I would do when I returned to the Phi Sig house, but of course a Collegiate Dictionary definition is scarcely sufficient for a concept like mystic. Especially coming from a rural Montana background, parents who forbade me to read the daily horoscope, etc.

Perhaps this would be better inserted in my Memories1 page, but again that is your call.

Dennis

PS. Got your email instructions about unchecking The Gallery Slide Show. It works. Thanks.

SECOND EMAIL: Dennis Gary To Henry Gurr =>

B) Dr. Oviatt’s name Briefly Appears In My “Values In Thought and Action:” Doc, Urging Me To Get An Advanced Degree And Come Back To Teach At Montana State. I have been told that he later became head of the history department and that he lost his only son in the Viet Nam War.
…As I have mentioned elsewhere, he [Dr Oviatt] was a bit earthy, given to profanity, etc. He strode into the 2nd quarter of a course in 20th Century US History, shook his fist at me, saying, "You no good son of a bitch. You dirty, rotten bastard. For 17 years I 've been able to say that no one has ever gotten 100% on one of my final exams -- until now." He then burst into laughter, shook my hand and said, "Great job." I told him I had had to guess on a few of the multiple choice questions, figuring the odds on the right answer. "That's not guessing," he replied. "That's analyzing the possibilities to come up with the right answer." I was so tired after the evening final (the third I took that day), that I had gone downtown to a movie at the Joyce Theater. Who came walking down the aisle a few minutes later? Dr. Oviatt. (Oviatt was PhD University of California, Berkeley.)

The faculty party I went to, mentioned in the first memories doc, is the one where the mystic conversation took place. What triggered this specific memory is the source letter sited above which turns up several places on the Internet. I wondered, at the time, what the word 'mystic' meant and looking for a professor to ask who was approachable and not involved in another conversation. Grieder in a group, Sarah off somewhere else, etc.

Don't remember much about the location of the party, etc. The experience for 20 year old was pretty overwhelming.

Dennis

******
Henry Gurr Replies =>
...Hey Dennis: This is GREAT!!! Wonderful. I hope you can probe for more memories. RE: "I am a mystic!"
******

Dennis Gary Replies =>
Henry
…I believe that the party (get together) was held at a Bozeman Women's Club House, somewhere near the campus, but not on the campus. I believe, but do not for sure that it was a then modern ranch house style, sliding glass doors reaching almost to ceiling, etc.
…Google images was no help, but, again, someone familiar with the campus/city then and now might help.
Dennis
…PS. It is overcast and 58 degrees in SF today. Ah, to escape.

We are saddened to report that Robert Dennis Gary passed away in Jan 9, 2020, li from Covid19. You may read about his life => A Robert Dennis Gary Memorial Tribute Page & Autobiography: ALSO PLEASE SEND EMAIL To HenryG__USCA.edu With Your Memories Of Dennis. Click Here.

Links to Additional Reading Related To The Above Memories.

2) A Student’s Memories of “Mrs.” Professor Sarah Vinke and Her English Department at Montana State College, Bozeman MT (1956-1960)

3) Dennis Gary’s “Values in Thought and Action: My Standards At School And In My Career”.

4) Memories of Deer Creek Mountain Ranch (an MSC Faculty Outing)

5) Henry Gurr’s Montana State University Archives Page

6) Archives Commentary and Connections to Memories of Sarah Vinke, Louis Vinke, Allan Kittell, and Robert Pirsig

7) “Books I’ve Enjoyed” by Sarah Jennings Vinke, with added commentary by Dennis Gary and Henry Gurr (Originally published, 1960, in the Montana Library Association Journal)

8) Commentary Regarding "Book I've Enjoyed" Sarah Jennings Vinke and Information About Viewing on the Internet by Dennis Gary and Henry Gurr

9) Pirsig Memory “The Divine Sarah”

10) Vinke, Pirsig, and the Origins of “Quality” and MOQ

11) Shirley Luhrsen and Sarah Vinke: Letters to and from Bozeman

12) Anthony McWatt's Robert Pirsig WebSite Of Jan 22 2018, As Saved By Archive.org.

13) Peter Voulkos's website Voulkos & Co.

12) Pirsig, MSC, and Zen, a selection from “In the People's Interest, A Centennial History of Montana State University”.

13) Interview with David Swingle, Museum of the Rockies, Bozeman, Montana, on Robert Pirsig, ZMM, MSC, and Bozeman, Montana

14) “THREATS TO ACADEMIC FREEDOM AT MONTANA STATE COLLEGE” -- a monograph by Robert G. Dunbar.

15) Howard Dean, Nemesis to Robert Pirsig while Teaching in the MSC English Department, by Dennis Gary.

16) Pirsig, MSC, and Zen, a selection from In the People's Interest, A Centennial History of Montana State University

17) Interview with David Swingle, Museum of the Rockies, Bozeman, Montana, on Robert Pirsig, ZMM, MSC, and Bozeman, Montana, by Dennis Gary.

18) Interview with Kay Campeau, Bozeman, Montana, resident on Robert Pirsig, ZMM, MSC, and Bozeman, Montana

1a) Photos of Faculty, Administrators, and Students at Montana State College: 1956-1960

1b) Further Photos of Faculty, Administrators, and Students at Montana State College: 1956-1960

A Special Facebook Page For The Old H2O Cafe, In San Francisco, Back In Its Better Times. At The H2O Cafe, Is Where My Friend Dennis Gary Worked On His Laptop, To Create Webpages Of His Memories Of Mrs. Professor Sarah Vinke.=>
…Click Here To See What The H2O Cafe Looked Like Back In Its Better Times. Photos & Explanation Include a) Dennis’s Laptop Computer Work Area, b) General Views Of Dining Tables, c) What the food menu looked like, and d) A Google Street View, March 2022, of what's Left of H2O Cafe, at 1330 Polk Street, San Francisco, CA. This Was At The Corner Of Polk Street & Frank Noris Street.
....VERY SAD TO SAY => The H2O Café closed back in ~2017. This is indeed a VERY sad & troubling ending, was such a good place for my friends Charles Pitts and Dennis Gary, back in the years 2010 thru Jan 2020, when Dennis suddenly died, likely of Covid19.

We Are Saddened To Report That Robert Dennis Gary Passed Away In Jan 9, 2020, Likely From Covid19. You May Read About His Life. Also: Please Send Email With Your Memories Of Dennis. => A Robert Dennis Gary Memorial Tribute Page & Autobiography: ALSO PLEASE SEND EMAIL To HenryG__USCA.edu With Your Memories Of Dennis. Click Here.

Edited by Andrew Geyer 17 Jan 2011, additional editing by Rosanna Willhite 25 July 2012. RevHSG5Oct2023,HSG23Oct2023.

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