Friday, April 24, 1998

Munday native Marvin Myers to be honored for ag teaching career

By J.T. Smith / Abilene Reporter-News

One of the greatest ag teachers -- and finest men -- to ever walk into a classroom will be recognized on May 2.

Marvin Myers will be honored from 11-11:30 a.m. in the east room of Crowell City Hall just south of the courthouse square.

Mr. Myers recently turned 84.

He was born on March 16, 1914 on a farm west of Munday in Knox County.

The veteran ag teacher graduated from Munday High School in 1933 during the very depths of the Great Depression.

But Marvin Myers wanted desperately to go to college and was determined to find a way.

He went from Munday to West Texas State Teachers College in Canyon -- but he didn't have enough money.

The dean had told him that if he could somehow return to school with a minimum of $100, he could get get him started in school.

Mr. Myers returned to Munday where he headed 200 acres of maize with a pocketknife, then sold both his horse and saddle.

He then hitchhiked back up to Canyon with $185 which put him in school for three nine-week semesters.

To continue in school, he moved to the college farm where he worked for his room and board. Mr. Myers lived in the old T Anchor Ranch House with 30 other boys.

At mid-term, he was hired as principal of the Perico School in Dallam to finish the year for the principal who had resigned. He returned to West Texas State that summer of '37 and graduated with his teaching degree.

Off to Texas A&M for agriculture

Mr. Myers went to Texas A&M University in College Station in the fall of 1937 and graduated with a vocational agriculture degree in 1938.

Texas A&M sent his resume to Seagraves for an ag teacher position.

When he checked on the job at Seagraves, he was told if Walker Todd from Crowell didn't take the job, he would get it. But Todd took the job at Seagraves -- thereby opening the ag teacher's job at Crowell.

That was the pivotal point in Marvin Myers' life.

He taught vo-ag in Crowell from for from 1938 until he retired in 1974, when current teacher Don Welch took over the ag program. Mr. Myers managed to go back to Texas A&M in the summer of 1952 and earn his master's degree.

The ag teacher married Peggy Cooper on Aug. 5, 1939. They have one daughter, Mary Anne Dedek of Plainview.

His distinguished career was interrupted in 1944 when he went into the Navy in World War II. He served on a small destroyer escort. After the war, he returned to Crowell in 1946 and his teaching.

He also had begun farming as a "side occupation" to his ag teaching.

Respect from fellow teachers

Mr. Myers spoke almost in a whisper -- always cool, calm and collected.

But at 6-foot-six on a perfectly sculptured frame, he didn't need to yell. So he never did. He just stood up and commanded respect by his very imposing presence.

Marvin Myers led by example.

"Marvin Myers was steady as a rock -- that's how I will always remember him," said Bill Coalson.

"Mr. Bill," part of the teaching team of Coalson-Robinson at Abilene-Cooper High (with legendary Leland Robinson), also started his ag teaching career in 1938 at Abilene-Wylie.

Coalson later directed the vocational ag program at Abilene High and -- and in 1961 -- launched the agriculture department at the brand-new Cooper High school that year.

Coalson, himself, will turn 84 on June 11 and still farms and remains a highly sought-after livestock judge, especially respected for his wide poultry knowledge.

Leon Burkham, current Knox City High agriscience teacher, said they couldn't honor a finer man than Marvin Myers on May 2.

"He is just a wonderful gentleman," Burkham notes. "I first got acquainted with him in 1959. Marvin Myers is a professional in every way. Always polite -- but competitive."

Mr. Myers' poultry team won state in 1948.

His livestock team was second in state that same year, and Charles Wishon was high individual at state for livestock judging in 1948.

Another of Myers' students, James Allen Welch, won state in news writing in 1939.

The writing but must have stayed with Welch. After his own distinguished teaching career, which included teaching high school science for 32 years, Welch finished his 706-page novel, a River Ran Between Them in 1995, published in 1996 by Commonwealth Publications.

Welch makes his home in Ruidoso, N.M.

While veteran farm writer and broadcaster Joe Brown of Wichita Falls was this farm writer's mentor and influence in focusing my career in ag communications, Mr. Myers clearly steered my life's work into agriculture, itself.

He was my ag teacher, my role model and still is my dear friend and adviser.

To this very day -- when I'm in a challenging situation -- I ask what Mr. Myers would do. That basic test has never let me down during the 29 years since I had my final class with him in 1969.