Donald Henry Reddick, Walter Johnson High Principal, 80
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/22/AR2008082202726.html
Donald Henry Reddick, 80; Walter Johnson High Principal
By Patricia Sullivan, Washington Post Staff Writer
Donald Henry Reddick, 80, who as principal of Walter Johnson High
School from the late 1960s through 1981 created an open and relatively
unstructured atmosphere at the school, died July 30 [2008] at
Buckingham's Choice Health Care Center in Adamstown [Maryland]. He had
coronary artery disease.
Dr. Reddick was hailed as a "student's principal" who enjoyed the
ideas of rebellious students, allowed students to go off-campus for
lunch, abolished the dress code and hall monitors, and let students,
rather than computers, make their class schedules.
"Of course kids slip through" the relaxed academic environment, he
said in a Washington Post article upon his 1981 retirement. "They
exist. They existed before. But we've provided an opportunity" for
their development.
The year before, he joked at graduation that half the students
probably didn't even know who he was.
A longtime champion of education, Dr. Reddick was a past president of
the Montgomery County [Maryland] Education Association.
He was born in Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin, and served in the Navy. He
graduated from the University of Maryland, where he also received a
master's degree in education in the early 1950s. He received a
doctorate of education from George Washington University in 1965 .
Dr. Reddick taught and was a guidance counselor before becoming
principal of Leland Junior High School in Bethesda. In 1966, he moved
to the top spot at Walter Johnson.
The teachers were not always supportive of Dr. Reddick's innovations.
However, he joined the picket lines in a 1968 teachers' strike and
later formed the Faculty Association, which gave teachers a voice in
school policy.
He urged the parents association, which was rewriting its list of
priorities in response to budget cuts, to stick with several long-
desired projects.
When students acted out, he found ways to engage them as thinking
humans. When students stole the school's big gates after an assistant
principal locked them out, Dr. Reddick installed new gates but never
closed them. He then extended the lunch period, which allowed clubs to
meet, gave teachers time to confer with students, and provided space
for occasional guest speakers.
Another time, an assistant principal took a long-haired student to his
office and ordered him to get a haircut. The boy, full of 1968
righteousness, threatened to call a lawyer. Dr. Reddick was called in,
and he discussed the relevance of short hair to educational
achievement. Soon the hair rule and the dress code were things of the
past.
Dr. Reddick taught part time at George Washington University after his
retirement.
Survivors include his wife of 58 years, Jean Bible Reddick of
Frederick [Maryland]; two daughters, Linda Brainerd of Frederick and
Nancy Reddick of Sperryville [Maryland]; and three grandchildren.
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