[Reading-hall-of-fame] [Fwd: Sad news-David Doake]

[Yetta Goodman]

David Doake is not a member of the Reading Hall of Fame but I know there 
are many members who know his contribution to the field of readingin RHF.
I am sending this just in case there are some of those members who do 
not know about David's death.  I just found out myself.

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: 	Sad news-David Doake
Date: 	Wed, 8 Jun 2005 17:50:21 -0400
From: 	phinney at READINGTIME.ORG
Reply-To: 	COE celt-l List <celt-l at COE.MISSOURI.EDU>
To: 	celt-l at COE.MISSOURI.EDU



It is with great sadness that I have learned that David 
Doake has passed away. He had brain surgery for a tumor 
last February. The operation was not as successful as was 
hoped. After a long struggle, he succumbed on May 29th. 
Below is his obituary, sent to me by a former  fellow 
teacher in Nova Scotia. Below that are a few words of my 
own.
I am away from home right now and don't have his wife's 
email address. I will send to to you in a week or so.
Margaret Phinney

DOAKE, David Brown
DOAKE, David Brown - Retired faculty member from the 
School of Education at Acadia University in Wolfville, 
passed away on Sunday, May 29, 2005, in Valley Regional 
Hospital. His early teaching and academic careers began in 
New Zealand where he remains highly regarded for his work 
in literacy development and creative approaches to the 
teaching of language arts. An accomplished athlete, David 
was recognized for his achievements in rugby and swimming. 
David served in the Korean War as a forward observation 
officer with the New Zealand K-Force, which formed part of 
the United Nations forces. He was commissioned as a 
lieutenant and rose to the rank of captain over his four 
years in the force. During the latter part of his military 
service, he led two successful rugby tours of Japan with 
teams comprised of K-Force servicemen. David returned to 
New Zealand and to teaching, but later left his homeland 
to pursue teaching and doctoral studies at the University 
of Alberta. He came to Acadia in 1977 and worked 
tirelessly until his retirement and even afterward. A 
dedicated, passionate teacher, he influenced the lives of 
many students, parents, and other teachers very 
positively. He was invited to give scholarly presentations 
in every Canadian province and in several countries. Upon 
retirement David enjoyed traveling, swimming, and 
gardening. He is survived by his wife, Diana and their 
son, Raja, and in New Zealand by his sons, David, Peter, 
Tony, and their families. In accordance with David's 
wishes, cremation has taken place. A memorial service will 
be held in St. John's Anglican Church in Wolfville on 
Saturday, June 18, at 3 p.m. In lieu of flowers, memorial 
donations may be made to the IWK Read-to-Me Nova Scotia 
Family Literacy Program.

A few words of my own:

It was one of the luckiest of the fortunate "unanswered 
prayers" of my life that I was unable, as I had hoped, to 
start Acadia University's post-baccalaureate teacher 
education program in 1975. Instead circumstances forced me 
to wait until 1977, the year that David Doake was retained 
on staff to teach the reading courses in the program. Had 
I started sooner, the direction of my professional life 
would have been quite different - conservative, 
traditional, ordinary. David hit the Western Nova Scotia 
educational establishment like a tornado, knocking the 
feet out from under notions like systematic explicit 
phonics instruction, behaviorist classroom management, and 
reductionist, anti-social practices in general. His 
passion for the whole language approach to developing 
literate humans, and miscue analysis as the foundation of 
assessment, was almost frightening to some of the quiet, 
polite young Canadians who were his first students that 
year. But his ideas were so exciting, so logical, and so 
humane that it was impossible not to be won over.

David introduced us to the works of Don Holdaway, Marie 
Clay, the Goodmans, Jerry Harste and Frank Smith, among 
others, back in those seminal years. He brought several of 
these greats to the remote AnnapolisValley of Nova Scotia 
so we could hear and see them in person. He supported the 
organization of what may have been the first international 
whole language conference on the continent in the fall of 
1984. It may have been the first time Frank Smith, Donald 
Graves, Don Holdaway, the Goodmans, Jerry Harste, Bill 
Martin Jr & John Archambault, Judith Newman, and other 
high powered thinkers were all in the same place at once. 
It was absolutely electric that weekend, and we all left 
inspired and energized. The changes inspired by that 
conference just kept taking place over the years. Nova 
Scotia continues to be forward-looking, led by many of 
David Doake's proteges. It is not lost on any of us, his 
fans, that he wanted memorial donations to go to a reading 
program.

Many of us who studied under David have gone on to 
leadership roles. For my own part, David set me on the 
whole language path and I haven't wavered for the nearly 
30 years of my own career as a classroom teacher, reading 
resource teacher, and, for the last 15 years, as a teacher 
educator. I shall be forever grateful to him for the 
inspiration and support he gave me and my fellow learners 
then and throughout the years. He is sorely missed.




-- 
Yetta M. Goodman
Regents Professor Emerita
University of Arizona, College of Education
Language Reading and Culture - Room 532
Tucson, AZ 85721
Home Address
7914 S. Galileo Lane
Tucson, AZ 85747-9609

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