Face Value: Robert Parkinson
One of DWU’s oldest living alums shares stories of his past

Robert Parkinson

Robert Parkinson belongs to a treasured few.

At 101 years old, the 1933 graduate is one of Dakota Wesleyan University’s oldest living alums. It’s not often someone lives for more than 10 decades, remembering World War I and II, women’s suffrage, The Great Depression, civil rights, Watergate and everything in between and since. And it’s downright rare to find one who can rattle off dates and names like his boyhood years were yesterday.

He credits his gift for longevity to clean living and a positive attitude. And, he always tries to focus on the blessings in life, the most important of which are his family – his late wife, Amy, and his twin daughters, Lois and Lucille, who he proudly boasts about at every opportunity.

He also had devoted and loving parents who struggled through the Great War and the Depression just like everyone else, but also managed to support three sons through college teaching Parkinson to always stay the course, no matter what – what he considers one of the greatest lessons ever passed from father to son.

He began school at DWU in 1926, after graduating at the top of his class at Highmore High School.

Before starting school he wrote to then President Dr. Edward Kohlstedt (1922-27) of DWU and explained his situation and desire to find work to help support himself.

“I had written to him and told him I had to have work … I got a letter back from Dr. Kohlstedt that said they had a furnace burning coal, and every weekend they had to have someone haul loads of ash. So I did that, and then I was assigned to Stout Hall – that was kind of a riot, a bunch of kids never been away from home before, freshmen, but it was fun. I did that for two years.”

He dabbled in freshmen football and excelled on the oratory team. His father encouraged him not to date anyone too seriously; always afraid he’d get distracted and never finish his education.

“The nicest support a father can give to his son is ‘stay the course until you finish,’ ” he said. “It helped me in handling my own twin daughters.”

He also got a job driving for DWU President Earl Roadman (1927-36).

“My fondest memory was the concern the faculty had. Dr. Roadman was as concerned about me as he would be his own son. Making sure I was eating enough, getting along with faculty, etc. In the spring, he asked me to become his driver for his away visits. He became so interested that when I was married and our twins were born, he called and congratulated me like I was his son and these were his grandchildren.”

To Parkinson, Dakota Wesleyan will always be a special place.

“It was the human touch. It was not a mill churning out bachelor degrees, it was tender, loving care, starting out with Dr. Roadman.”

His senior quote in the 1933 Tumbleweed was “The virtue lies in the struggle, not the prize,” – which aptly sums up his education. Seven years passed before he received his college degree because he had to take several years off in between to help his father on the farm. He majored in history but intended to go on to study dentistry.

“In 1933, the unemployment was just tremendous; there was no way my father could provide money to send me on. I had two brothers who were already studying to become doctors,” he said, so he went into teaching instead.

Right out of college, he got a job teaching at Ideal High School. “Boy I took it, because I could teach and the salary was $70 a month,” he said.

He could also live with a rural minister and receive room and board for 50 cents a day. “It gave me money I could send home to my dad. I was so anxious to do what I could to help him.”

He didn’t meet his wife until after DWU, when he enrolled in summer courses at the University of Iowa while he was earning his master’s degree.

He worked in Ideal for two years and then was offered a job at Washington High School in Sioux Falls. He worked there until World War II and was recruited by the Army to teach at the radio operating school in Sioux Falls. After the war, he got a job with Alcoa Aluminum as a salesman and worked his way up. He was with the company for 16 years before the branch he was working for closed. Then he went to work for the Los Angeles school district and later became a consultant for social studies teachers for the 44 schools in LA.

Three months before his 65th birthday, he was informed of his forced retirement. Clearly the school district was unaware of how many years he had left in him.

He took that phase of his life like the rest – change is inevitable. He has remained active in the church his entire life and still teaches Sunday school for seniors, lives in his own home and lends a helping hand whenever it is needed.

“Life can be beautiful at 100, it is for me.”

A few memories of times past:

World War I (9 years old when U.S. entered war): “We had war bond drives and my father was chairman of the board and had Liberty Loans. Every day in our rural school we had to buy a war stamp. … The whole idea was to involve the entire family in that war. We’d get our nickel and our dimes and paste them on our card and all that money went in to support the war. Years later we were given the opportunity, if we wanted, to trade in our cards that were full for cash … I don’t remember what happened to mine … but my mother and father made sure their three boys took their nickels and dimes to school.”

WWII: He was teaching at Washington High School when the Army came through and “grabbed every guy they could in our public high school and told us we would be relieved of the draft” if they taught in the radio operating school in Sioux Falls. He did that until the end of the war.

Women’s Suffrage: “I remember my mother. There was a blizzard that November and on voting day my dad hooked up a team and sled to get her to the school house so she could vote in the first election. She wanted to have her name right there as one of the honorable citizens to take advantage of it.”