Visitation today for longtime Mount Prospect teacher
Marjorie Van Dyke grew up in rural northwest Iowa, and though she lived in Mount Prospect for more than 40 years, the lessons learned growing up on a farm never left her.
At Busse and later Fairview schools, both in Mount Prospect, where she taught for a combined 28 years, Mrs. Van Dyke was known for hatching chicks in an incubator, teaching children to make bread and churn butter, and even creating a butterfly garden.
She passed away on April 28 at the age of 88.
Long before the term "hands-on" teaching became popular, Mrs. Van Dyke was immersing her students in stimulating projects about life cycles.
"She'd bring a homemade incubator into class, with fertilized duck eggs," says Laurie Oh, learning resource teacher at Fairview School. "The children would learn about the incubation and hatching periods, and the whole school would wait for the eggs to hatch. It was always very exciting."
Mrs. Van Dyke attended Sheldon Junior College and Iowa State Teacher's College before starting her career in a one-room schoolhouse in rural Iowa.
She and her husband, Richard, moved to the northwest suburbs in 1960s when he accepted the job of principal at the former Sunset Park Elementary School in Mount Prospect.
Mrs. Van Dyke soon resumed her teaching career, serving as kindergarten teacher at Busse School, before spending the bulk of her years teaching second grade at Fairview.
Her classroom was always a lively place, designed to spark the interest of her students. Between the incubator and light, butter churn, butterfly boards and array of plants, students learned about life science through a variety of projects.
One of her former students, Ken Dix, a Mount Prospect paramedic, fondly recalled his first day of kindergarten in Mrs. Van Dyke's class at Busse School.
"I remember I did not want to be there, so I hid under the piano bench," says Dix, who also co-owns Cappanari's Ice Cream in Mount Prospect. "She let me stay there for a long time, before gently moving me out into the room. She was just the sweetest lady."
Things didn't always go as planned, however, Her daughter vividly remembers one year when caterpillars started escaping from her classroom, and they frantically tried to capture all of them.
"She used all of these things because of her farm background, but they weren't just random projects," says her daughter, Melodie Van Dyke of Mount Prospect. "She made teaching units out of them."
Mrs. Van Dyke's four children remember accompanying their mother often to her classroom, to turn the eggs, twice a day on weekends, during their hatching cycles.
"Her brothers both were turkey farmers, so sometimes she hatched turkey eggs," her daughter adds. "But mostly she used duck eggs. They were cute, and they would imprint and follow you around."
Janet Adams, another colleague from Fairview School, remembered what a popular teacher Mrs. Van Dyke was among students.
"She was very gentle and kind, and never raised her voice," Adams says. "The children just related to her."
Besides her daughter, Mrs. Van Dyke is survived by her daughter Lorraine (James) Brown of Greenville, South Carolina; and sons Roger Van Dyke of Mount Prospect and Nickolas Van Dyke of Palatine; as well as seven grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.
Visitation takes place from 4-9 p.m. today at Friedrich's Funeral Home, 320 W. Central Road, before a 10:30 a.m. funeral service Tuesday, May 4, at Community Presbyterian Church, 407 N. Main St., both in Mount Prospect.