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WYATT REMEMBERED FOR 42 YEARS AS WH EDUCATOR

By Wes Clement/OF THE COMMERCIAL STAFF
Monday, October 26, 2009 10:41 PM CDT

WHITE HALL — Roger Dale Wyatt was a hard-working, compassionate educator in the White Hall School District for 42 years, friends and colleagues said.

Wyatt, 66, of White Hall, died Saturday.

“He would do anything in the world for you,” White Hall High School Principal Bill Mitchell said. “A lot of times he would go out of his way to do things not only for the faculty but for the students here at the school. He was a super guy.”

The Pine Bluff native and long-time school teacher at the White Hall High School was the son of the late Robert Guy “Sam” Wyatt and Ivy Nugent Wyatt.

Journalism courses

Before retiring last semester, Wyatt taught English and journalism and every year he spent long hours helping students create the school’s yearbook.

“He did it all himself,” Mitchell said in reference to Wyatt’s involvement in the publication. “He spent a countless number of hours working on that yearbook going behind the students and helping them produce an outstanding yearbook year after year after year.”

Wyatt graduated from Pine Bluff High School in 1961. He then earned an English degree at Arkansas State University in 1965 and went to work teaching at Hickory Ridge, near Jonesboro. He began teaching at White Hall in 1967.

“Dale and I played for the old Zebras together many years ago in baseball, and I’ve known Dale for nearly 60 years,” White Hall Mayor James “Jitters” Morgan said.

Morgan and others said Wyatt had been known for being a good pitcher and he had been a talented basketball player in high school. He was on the Zebras first state championship baseball team in 1959.

“He’s done a lot of good things for the kids in this area,” Morgan said. “He was awarded the White Hall Chamber of Commerce Educator of the Year in 2008.”

Morgan said Wyatt regularly planted and tended to flowers and did other landscaping at the City Park, City Hall and around town. Before retiring he had also been in charge of landscaping at the high school.

Like Mitchell, Danny Young, a White Hall assistant superintendent, also commended Wyatt’s dedication to teaching. “He was always concerned about his students, his students’ learning,” Young said.

Wyatt’s funeral will be held Wednesday at 2 p.m. in the Chapel of Ralph Robinson and Son Funeral Directors with Rev. Elwin Ollar officiating.

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