Winter 2016
A Tribute to Mr. Dean
Throughout high school, my Latin club was like my
family. We had almost every class together, we would stay
long after school for club meetings, and we always ended
up planning impromptu hangouts over the weekends. In
short, they have become some of my best friends. Each
year, we are brought together for a weekend during the
Ohio Junior Classical League (OJCL) Convention. We
grow closer by spending entire weeknights working on
our club banners and sharing the embarrassment from
shouting Latin cheers accompanied by ridiculous dance
moves.
Unfortunately, our Latin teacher did not share the
same passion for the JCL as the rest of us; he began to
withdraw from the club and eventually withheld our
payments for the state convention. We were panicked and
upset but luckily we knew whom we could turn to: Larry
Dean, the Ohio JCL State Chair and teacher from our rival
school, Summit Country Day. Our Certamen team always
ended up playing Summit in the finals at local matches,
and whenever one of our students ran for state offices at
the OJCL Convention, it was a guarantee they would face
someone from Summit. Despite the intense rivalry, Mr.
Dean was always there to make sure we were competing
at our best. At a
Certamen match,
whenever we were
confused about a
question, he would
take the time to
teach our team a
small lesson about
the subject matter,
despite the fact
that he was our
opponents’ coach.
He always went out
of his way to invite
our club to travel
along with his
school to the
National JCL
Convention and
even offered to
chaperone us while
Mr. Dean with his son, Tullus, at OJCL
there, in place of
Convention in 2015
o u r t e a c h e r.
Beyond that, when our teacher withheld our registration
to the OJCL Convention, he extended the deadline and
Mr. Dean motions for cereal while coaching Certamen at
the 2015 NJCL Convention
even walked us through the process to register a new
sponsor before convention.
You could say that Mr. Dean was simply doing his
job, which was of course true, but he did so in an
unprecedented way. Mr. Dean always went above and
beyond to help all of the students of the OJCL and did so
Mr. Dean having a light bulb moment with his student
Patrick Casañas
with an incredible amount of dedication and charity. In a
way, he became our adoptive Latin teacher, and took our
Latin Club family under his wing. In the true nature of a
great teacher, he taught me things beyond what was to be
learned in the classroom. He was always actively looking
to help others and did so graciously with a great sense of
humor. Mr. Dean is the reason I have been to fifteen Latin
conventions—he makes the Classics community what it is.
He keeps me coming back and keeps the organization
surrounding a dead language alive.
Anonymous
XI