PAT KANEY: A Tribute
PAT KANEY was a vigorous teacher whose personality has long been a part of the College in the minds of many Dartmouth men. There are probably few if any graduates of the classes of 1915 to 1948 who didn't know him. He will be remembered for many reasons his cheerfulness, his sincerity, his enthusiasm, his cooperation. But most of all he will be remembered for his unselfish devotion and successful accomplishment of his mission as a teacher.
Pat was born in South Boston on Saint Patrick's Day in 1883. He always claimed that was how he got his name. He spent his early years in and around Boston. Those must have been vigorous years because he early became interested in gymnastics, in which he was considered very daring. As a result of this interest he joined the Christian Union Gymnasium in Boston. This organization not only had a broad and highly developed program of athletics, but also was a meeting place for the popular vaudeville performers of those days.
Even in those early days, Pat was interested in people as much as he was in developing skill. He met and worked with a large number of these professionals many of whom remained his life-long friends.
Through his association with these professional performers, acrobats, dancers, jugglers and specialty artists he became a skilled performer. -In fact, his proficiency in many of these highly developed skills was such that he easily could have become a star performer. He didn't, and I have always believed from various remarks he made that he really felt a call to the profession of teaching. I remember remarking to him once that he should be on the stage or in a circus. His answer to that: "What? And give up this chance to teach and work with these boys?" is just one indication of how he felt about teaching.
His first venture into the field of teaching was as assistant physical director at the Lynn, Massachusetts, Y.M.C.A. He stayed there from 1910 to 1912 and then went to the Boston Y.M.C.A. for the next two years. In 1914 he was brought to Dartmouth as gym coach by Dr. Bowler and served faithfully for 34 years.
Pat was truly a great teacher. He made a marked and lasting impression on the students with whom he worked. So enduring was that impression, that I recently received a letter from a graduate of the class of 1917 telling how much Pat had helped him and voicing the opinion that possibly he had never received due credit for his work. Certainly the full extent of Pat's work and influence with the students was not known to many. Perhaps it can be said that his endeavors were too generally taken for granted, and there are reasons for that, too.
He was a teacher, not just a coach. He cared little for the headlines. His fame lives on in the hearts and lives of the many he helped, not in dead newspaper files. To him the measure of his achievement in teaching was to be found in the happy and successful lives of his students.
He was modest to an extreme. He worked in a quiet and unassuming manner. He had the faculty of making what the student did a very spectacular accomplishment. At the same time the long, hard, tedious groundwork which he laid to build up to that achievement he passed off as something too small to be mentioned. Almost unbeknown to the student that foundation of confidence, honesty, enthusiasm and the understanding of one's capacity and reserves became a vital part of his education that carried over into later life. One alumnus has expressed this thought by saying, "I think Pat taught me more about the things that matter in life than any other man in college." Another, "He was very much an integral part of the College and I am not sure it will ever be the same to me again."
Another reason is drawn from my own experience. When I was in college he seemed like a second father to me. He made me feel that he was more interested in me than any one else. Through my long association with him after graduating I realized that many others had this same feeling and attachment for him.
I sincerely doubt if any amount of recognition could ever have taken the place of the wonderful letters he received from his boys. For many years we changed from street to gym clothes together in the little dressing room attached to his office. During that time we were very close, and he brought many of these letters for me to read. I wish they were available and could be collected. Pat, modest as he was, appreciated them but never realized what eloquent testimonials they were to his teaching. He read them, answered them, and threw them away. To those who wrote it should be said, they meant a lot to him, helping him to go on meeting each new class of freshmen and to give a part of himself to all who needed help. As one of those former freshmen put it, "A little of Pat is in all of us some of his courage, good sportsmanship and friendliness."
He was happy in his beloved gymnasium, which he jokingly called the manhood factory. He was happy because he was teaching and was allowed freedom to develop his students according to their needs. He taught the whole individual and more often than not made an actuality of his jest. To the student his primary purpose may have appeared to be the teaching of gymnastics, the development of a gymnast. To him that was secondary. He took seriously his place as a member of the College faculty and skillfully used gymnastics and physical education as a tool to educate the individual for life.
It made no difference to Pat whether a bov had one leg or two, wore braces, or was lame, was weak and undeveloped, or an athlete in his prime. They were all the same, they were students of Dartmouth College and he expended his every effort to develop their potentialities. Examples of these cases are innumerable. There were twins who as freshmen could barely suspend their weight by their arms Pat took them under his wing, developed them, taught them to chin, not just with both arms, but with each arm separately. Both earned letters as members of the gym team.
There was another, a good athlete, who felt he was playing second fiddle on an athletic team, came to Pat discouraged and disillusioned. Pat worked with him, renewing his confidence and faith, and he became not only an outstanding gymnast but an All-American athlete as well.
One boy came to college sickly, underweight, woefully undeveloped and weak. He had no confidence in himself or his abilities. In the circumstances there was little hope of his making the grade. Pat spotted him, diagnosed his difficulties and began helping him. Within a year he had gained nearly thirty pounds and achieved a more normal development of physique and strength. This instilled a confidence and self-respect which he needed so much to face life's problems. He never made the gym team, but is now a successful member of society. He writes that he is going through life with the old fight indoctrinated by Pat.
Another student after hearing of Pat's death wrote to Mrs. Kaney:
"I thought it might be of some help to you to know that I was one of Pat Kaney's 'boys' who was helped a great deal while in college, and who has felt his fine influence throughout my life. I was in college from 1925 to 1929 and was with him almost every afternoon. Pat was one of the most patient and kindest persons I have ever known. He spent long hours with persons who were physically ill-equipped to become gymnasts and developed them so that they had a great deal of skill in their fields. As a result, we developed a sense of confidence which we all owe to Pat.
"Up to the time I came to Dartmouth I had taken up little of organized sports and had a strong disinclination toward exercise, but Pat took me in hand, gave me confidence in myself and inspired me with an interest in gymnastics.
"Pat was not the usual coach who looked for promising athletes, but through his devotion to his work and his great friendliness with people, he gave an opportunity to many persons which otherwise would have been denied them."
These quotations, though only a few of the many that might be included give evidence of Pat's success in his chosen mission. He was a teacher a great teacher. Teaching in physical education, which often is so diffidently accepted as a part of education, Pat nevertheless made his influence as a teacher felt widely. One of his friends and former colleagues, now a Dean of Students of a large college, writes: "Pat was competent, capable and cooperative. To know him was to admire and to respect him. He made his contribution willingly and unselfishly."
Yes, Pat was that, all of that, and he lives on, as again quoted from another letter, "Pat truly lives on in the hearts of all his boys and his many friends."
It was those characteristics and qualities which made his influence so important and placed him alongside the other great teachers of Dartmouth College.
PATRICK JOSEPH KANEY
ASST. PROFESSOR OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION
