ALDRICH JAMES DYER

Wawota High School Principal, 

ALDRICH JAMES DYER

PEd,  BA, MEd, PhD

He was principal in Wawota for a number of years from about 1947. He taught  to 1959 making that class his last grade 12 class there, then he and his wife, Vera White, moved to Yellowknife, North West Territories.  He taught school for the Department of Indian Affairs at Sir John Franklin.  That was where he and other education minded people were instrumental in beginning a Teacher Education Program  (TEP) with 15 Indigenous young people in Yellowknife, NWT, the first year, 1959.  After some time as director of the program  at Yellowknife they moved to other postings in the NWT.   Ten students of his were quizzed and as a person in the know announced, "They were splendid!"  As I understand it was  for C.IT.E.P. (Canadian Indian Teachers Education Program). Sometime later Dr. Aldrich James Dyer, his wife Vera and their family moved to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan where he was affiliated with the University of Saskatchewan as an Associate Professor.  One thing he drilled into all students was the importance of education. He felt every student should attend university for at least one year... it(University) was a "...great leveler," he said.  

The philosophy that he lived his life by is best contained in the poem INVICTUS:

"Out of the night that covers me

Black as the pit from pole to pole

I thank whatever Gods that be 

For my unconquerable soul.

"….It matters not how strait the gait

How charged with punishments the scroll

I am the master of my fate

I am the captain of my soul"

by William Ernest Henley.

The late Aldrich James Dyer was born January 4, 1925 at Ridgedale, Saskatchewan. He was raised by adoptive parents, Jack and Amanda Dyer, with one sister, Mrs. Marie (George) Sletten of Yorkton. They attended school at Bulyea, Saskatchewan. A.J.'s friend,  Arvid Thompson.... was his best man when he married Vera White and they were close friends in their pursuit of their own educational goals over the years. 

"Dr. Aldrich James Dyer's funeral took place Nov. 18,1992 from St. Stephen's Anglican Church in Saskatoon. It was conducted by The Venerable Larry Mitchell, The Rev. John  Middleton, and Mr. Fraser Lawton." from an article I wrote in The Carlyle Observer, August 3, 1993 with lots of assistance from many of Dyer's friends. I attended that funeral taking a friend of mine... a teacher friend of Dr. Aldrich James Dyer …. Dorothy Haldenby of Wawota and she lived to the age of 101 years many years later.  More a little later... Please kindly note any errors needing corrections.