Dennis Gary's Values in Thought and Action: My Standards at School and in My Career.

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. The Kittell Discussions of Values
III. History Professor Merrill Burlingame & Bozeman's City Manager
IV. Teaching and Values
V. More Teaching and Values
VI. Hmmmmmm…
VII. Hmmmmmm…Revisited
VIII. Regarding Values and Generational Differences, etc…
IX. Reed College
X. MSC Education Department: Literally, and Value-wise!
XI. Contact Mr. Dennis Gary
XII. Links to Additional Reading Related to the Above Memories

Introduction:

The book “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance” (ZMM) is subtitled “An Inquiry into Values.” Author Robert Pirsig emphasizes how values are formative for all of life. Accordingly, we have added this page concerning the values-related situations faced by Dennis Gary in his student days and in his career. These values-connected experiences were recalled, from time to time, as he wrote up his The Sarah Vinke Of My Student Days, which covers his student years in the late 1950's at Montana State College (MSC), now Montana State University (MSU). In addition, Mr. Gary's memories come from his career as a High School English teacher. Also, in researching ZMM with HSG, the values topic was discovered in several places in the MSU ARCHIVES DOCUMENTS. On this page visitors should see especially, in relation to topic of values, the discussion of Dr. Allen Kittell. Especially be sure to see values emphasized by Mrs. Luhrsen, in her three letters about Sarah Vinke..

At the bottom of this page you will find For Additional Reading: Items 1) 2) & 3) are discussions specific to values, and in turn give links to their appearances and related topics in other ZMMQ webpages.

RE: The Kittell Discussions of Values.

I never met Dr. Kittell. What I found interesting was that at almost the same time as his talk before the AAWU, I was arguing at Klamath Union High School in Klamath Falls, Oregon about values with English Department members many years my senior (another generation?) about whose values we were teaching: theirs or mine? And what if our values no longer applied? Looking at what happened in the 1960's, dating from the Kennedy assassination and including the flower children, the war protests, etc., it seems to me that what Dr. Kittell and I were arguing independently of each other was remarkably similar.

History Professor Merrill Burlingame & Bozeman's City Manager

In thinking more of Dr.Kittell and his talk on VALUES, introduced at an AAUW Meeting by Professor Sarah Vinke, I remember a talk where Merrill Burlingame, Chair of the MSC History Department, had invited the City Manager of Bozeman, Montana to discuss the superiority of the city manager form of government over the mayoral form or government. During the Q&A, I brought up the fact that under his watch a City Treasurer whom he had hired had embezzled $75,000, not a lot to the city of Chicago, but a lot to Bozeman. The treasurer had altered bank statements using White Out and a typewriter eraser, claiming that it was the bank correcting its own mistakes.

I asked what measures the City Manager had put into place to prevent this from happening again: an independent audit, or what? The City Manager, purple with rage, answered that the whole thing was too preposterous to ever happen again. But I persisted as to what steps had been put into place to ensure that this or some other device was not used again. At this point the City Manager concluded his remarks and stormed out.

I apologized to Dr. Burlingame for embarrassing his guest. Burlingame's response was one of delight. "It serves the old bastard right. Make him earn his keep. There are other speakers in Bozeman, if he does not want to return." So questioning, challenging authority, critical thinking were definitely there at MSC. Kittell of course came to MSC during Burlingame's watch. Merrill G. Burlingame (1901-1994) is of Sarah Vinke's generation.

Teaching and Values

PS. Referring to my earlier email re: Composition courses. Roland Bartel of U of Oregon English Dept. handed back a bunch of papers in a rage, telling a literature class: "And you expect to teach English. You can't even write grammatically. You must copy these over with my corrections." In four pages, I found only one correction: a "?" over a comma splicing two short, but related independent clauses together. So I copied the paper over again using a period or semi-colon. Then he told me how embarrassed he was that he put me to the work. "Your splice made sense" so I was only questioning whether you wanted to do that or not” (see Pirsig, ZMM, on nit-picky rules). Later, out on a job interview, I missed one of Bartel’s tests. When I got back he told me not to waste my time taking the test. “Two weeks, one month from a Masters degree, your assignment is to get a job.” So I guess Quality is where you find it.

More Teaching and Values

If I hadn't moved to Oregon, who knows how closely I would have remained associated with Montana State College. Alton Oviatt of the History Department suggested in his own earthy way that I get this "high school shit" out of my system, get an advanced degree somewhere else, and come back to teach at Montana State. "Montana State needs people like you." When I told him if I did it would be to teach English instead of History, he said, "I can live with that. My statement stands." Dr. Burlingame spearheaded my nomination for a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship (which I did not get). Oh, well. He said that the English Department felt that it was just too improbable that a student from Montana State would get such a fellowship, but that he did not feel that way; and in any event, MSC had to start somewhere to get recognition and he felt I had a chance.

My sophomore year I got a C one quarter in required Army ROTC. During next quarter's registration in the MSC Field House, Dr. Oviatt, seeing that C, strode over to the ROTC table and said to Capt. Williams: “You God damned SOB, ruining my star student's straight A average.” As Capt. Williams began to stand up, Oviatt continued: “You can't court martial me, but I can flunk your star cadet.” Then Oviatt returned to the History Department table.

Hmmmmmm . . .

After my roommate got back his tech writing papers from Dr. Parker with good grades on them, he started laying $15.00 or $20.00 on me each time. I asked him what brought that on, and he said: "Dr. Parker told me I should." Era 1959, that was good pay I think.

Hmmmmmm . . . Revisited

As I have said before, I am not a great student of philosophy. What I know about Leibnitz I learned as background for reading Voltaire's “Candide.”

One evening while I was sitting at a lunch counter in Visalia, CA, a fellow claims representative from the Social Security office came in and sat down next to me. Then he began reading a book without so much as a hello, though he did place an order. I decided it would be a shame to break his power of concentration; but glancing over his shoulder as I left, I noted that he was reading Leibnitz.

So the next day during a lull at work I said: "Tell me, is this really the best of all possible worlds, and is everything that happens really for the best?"

Art looked startled and said, "That's uncanny. I was reading on that very subject last night."

"As a matter of fact, you were reading Leibnitz on that very subject last night," I replied.

"Are you psychic or something?" asked Art. If a Mexican could turn pale, Art did.

So I explained what had happened and he was apologetic, but said: "I didn't know you studied philosophy."

I allowed that I hadn't.

"But your timing and placement were perfect," he replied, shaking his head.

I would have to thank MSC Philosophy Professor Hauser for giving me the necessary understanding.

Regarding Values and Generational Differences, etc. ...

Bechtel, Inc.

I can remember a Bechtel engineer in Space and Defense who joked about having been one of the anti-war protesters washed down the steps of SF City Hall by fire hoses in the 1960's. "Look at me today: security clearances, designing nuclear bomb containers, etc.”

Another Bechtel engineer told me that he and his colleagues always wondered why, when we all went to a neighboring cafeteria, the staff always tripped over themselves to wait on me when I didn't throw a dime into the tip jar. He said he and his colleagues usually threw five dollars in the tip jar even when only getting coffee. Then one day a cafeteria employee had to stop his catering cart fast in order to keep from colliding with us when we came in the door and all the linens and silverware tumbled off the cart. So I got down on the floor to help the waiter pick things up much to his embarrassment and the Bechtel engineers in suits followed my lead. The engineer in question later told me that the next day when they went over (I was not with them) the staff tripped all over themselves waiting on the engineers. His conclusion was that the staff of the cafeteria waited on people out of turn who recognized them and treated them as equals. "The tip money meant nothing. Being a good guy did," he said. This engineer was a native of Belgium and educated in Paris.

I asked another engineer why he let a project leader abuse him verbally. He said other than the fact that the pay was good and that the leader had the ability to bring a project in on time and under budget, that I should know they were both more comfortable out in the field in their hardhats and jeans. But he added, "I'll tell you. When we were out on a project 14 miles northwest of Carlin, NV and my wife called from San Francisco saying that she was going into emergency surgery, could I please come home? I went to this project leader for help. He told me to give him 10 minutes. He then pulled up in a jeep and said hop in. “These blueprints have to go to headquarters in San Francisco immediately so I've chartered a plane that's waiting for us in Reno. When it gets to San Francisco International another engineer will be there to take them to headquarters and on the way he will drop you off at the hospital. So he can call me anything that he wants to.” {{At link next: Note how Dr. Vinke intervened upon behalf of Shirley Luhrsen during Shirley's days as a student and teacher at MSC.}} Scroll down to (Or Edit>Find) “Professor Sarah Vinke Was A Wonderful Part of My Life At Montana College, Bozeman.”

Reed College

I recently noticed a reference to ZMM author Robert Pirsig's interest in Reed College of Portland, Oregon and its withholding of grades until the end of the term. It brings to mind the following: When I was in Oregon in the early '60's, there was a big stir over two coeds at Reid who hung a "FUCK COMMUNISM" banner out of their dormitory window. An official was insisting they take it down and be disciplined. The girls were insisting that they were only being patriotic and that the college officials should be disciplined for being pro Communist. Also, the “Princeton Man's Guide to Women on College Campuses” stated that if you married a Reed College girl, you would have to accept the fact that your wife was better educated and smarter than you were.

Off in Its Own World Just a Few Blocks Away from Sarah Vinke, Pirsig, Kittell . . . the MSC Education Department: Literally, and Value-wise!

The MSC Education Department was something else. Dr. Franks, one of my education professors, called me in to tell me I was getting too many A's and I should start partying and goofing off so that I would get average grades, and thus better understand (as a future English teacher) the problems of the average student. He used to speak of the "12 clearly defined and unchanging epochs of American history." When I asked Dr. Burlingame, Chairman of the History Department, what the 12 epochs were, he said, "Beats the hell out of me. Dr. Franks has been spouting that shit for years." During the summer after graduation, Dr. Franks called me at home upset that I had returned a contract unsigned offered by the Highline District with a note that I had already signed with Klamath Falls, OR. It was most unethical that I had not notified the superintendent of the Highline District and was making him, Dr. Franks, look bad. I told Dr. Franks that I had queried the superintendent of the Highline District on numerous occasions as to whether I was still being considered for a position, and he had never responded. Dr. Franks said that was not the point. The point was that the superintendent had been counting on me if the person he really wanted turned him down. That had happened; and if I wanted to do the ethical thing, I would break the contract with Klamath Falls and sign on with Highline. Montana had subsidized my education and I owed it to Montana to stay in Montana. I asked Dr. Franks if he had ever heard of the United States of America. Then I said I was sorry he felt the way he did, but that I was going to Klamath Falls, and hung up.

I later found out that Dr. Franks had put a negative comment on my command of English grammar in my placement file. The following summer at Southern Oregon College I took Structural Linguistics (as compared to traditional grammar) from a Dr. Arthur Kreisman and when he gave me an A told him I needed a letter for my MSC file countermanding Dr. Franks' comment. Kreisman said, "It's yours. Have MSC send me the forms." I did and later got a note from Dr. Kreisman acknowledging that he had mailed the completed reference to MSC. "How the hell are you, anyway," he added.

A) See how Dr . Kreisman also comes up in Vinke the Populist discussion here: COMMENTARY RE SARAH VINKE’S “BOOKS I’VE ENJOYED”

So my memories of the Education Department are not the best. I did the required term paper for an Education class on the statistical research on reading levels for different age levels. Big words were thought to be beyond the comprehension, say, of a fourth grader. But I thought, though I had no course work in statistics at the time, "What a bunch of crap." So I wrote an article for Jack Barsness’s article writing class, punching holes in the research. He gave me an A and suggested that I submit it for publication. I said I wouldn't because the Education Department would then keep me from getting a teaching certificate. Barsness’s response was if I got that article published, I wouldn't need a certificate or a teaching job.

A) See Jack Barsness also in A Student’s Memories of “Mrs.” Professor Sarah Vinke and Her English Department At Montana State College, Bozeman MT (1956-1960)

Dennis Gary's Family Buick Used For
MSC Faculty Outing To Deer Creek Mountain Retreat Property.

Links to Additional Reading Related to the Above Memories

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

3) Following the Footsteps of My Mentor, Professor Sarah Vinke: My Life as an English Teacher, and Other Memories

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

5) More General Information About the Deer Creek Summer Retreat Mountain Property & Cabins The Interrelation of This Property with Owner Shirley Luhrsen & Sarah Vinke, Is Here:

6) This Site Has a Series of Interesting Photos of Deer Creek. This site, with photos, rental information, and the Deer Creek history page, is CURRENTLY NOT AVAILABLE. We will continue to make inquiries about this, but so far have not received a reply.

7) One of Mr. Dennis Gary's emails mention an Internet link to the site to another ranch, The Flying D Ranch that now belongs to Ted Turner. This was out near his Family's Ranch. Ted Turner Enterprises Flying D Ranch.

8) Henry Gurr’s Montana State University Archives Page

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

10) “Books I’ve Enjoyed” by Sarah Jennings Vinke (Originally published, 1960, in the Montana Library Association Journal)

11) Commentary Regarding “Books I’ve Enjoyed” and Information About Viewing on the Internet by Dennis Gary and Henry Gurr

12) Pirsig Memory “The Divine Sarah”

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

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

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

16) Peter Voulkos's website Voulkos & Co.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

Edited by Andrew Geyer 03 July 2011, additional editing by Rosanna Willhite 25 July 2012, RevHsgOct272023.
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