Hyke was a teacher, coach, mentor, friend

My aunt and uncle in Dickinson, N.D., e-mailed me with the news last Saturday that my high school biology teacher and track coach bequeathed his worldly possessions to his alma mater, Dickinson State University. Not large by today's standards, his $750,000 gift was the largest single donation in the school's history and made the front page of the Saturday morning edition of the Dickinson Press.

That's just the kind of thing anyone who knew him would expect from Douglas Hyke. Hyke, who taught at Havre High School for 35 years, died in June at 73.

Though I was no great shakes as a jock, I did do...