An incredible teacher

Published 9:00 pm Tuesday, March 6, 2007

EVERETT – As night falls, memory kicks in.

World War II had just ended. The 17-year-old boy jumped onto the Navy ship that took him to the Philippines. The mission was to bring soldiers home.

He wasn’t quite sure where his future lay. The boy thought of becoming a photographer or maybe a dentist.

“When you settle down, your mind starts to remind you of things,” said Bob Dixon, 79, of Edmonds. He ended up pursuing neither of those careers, but found great satisfaction on another path.

After his tour of duty, his ship berthed at the Port of Seattle, where he met a math professor, Burton Beegle, at Seattle Pacific University.

“He made everything so clear to me that I wanted to be a teacher,” Dixon said.

Now a retired physics, astronomy and math professor, Dixon has spent his retirement tutoring students at the First Baptist Church’s new community center in Everett.

For Gloria Love of Marysville, Dixon is an incredible teacher who saved her son from shying away from math.

She was stunned when Matthew, 15, told her that his frustration with math was gone.

“He looked at me and said, ‘Mom, it’s easy and I can do it,’ ” she said. Matthew had been struggling to improve his math grade after entering Marysville Arts and Technology School.

“Bob has this amazing way of making people around him want to learn,” Love said.

Every Tuesday and Thursday, Dixon drives from Edmonds to Everett to give a three-hour tutoring session, sometimes even longer, to students who need help.

“I believe people die sooner if they just sit around,” he said. “To be able to teach is very rewarding. It also helps me to sharpen my brain. “

After earning his bachelor’s degree in mathematics and physics at Seattle Pacific University, Dixon began his education career as a high school teacher with a salary of $3,000 a year.

“It was the time when gas was only 25 cents per gallon and my apartment rent was only $40,” he recalled.

Dixon fell in love with teaching. He took his students to Italy and studied the sky at the same place where physician Galileo Galilei had observed the universe centuries ago.

“The key is that students don’t have to have a heavy knowledge about physics or astronomy in order to appreciate what they see,” he said. “I want them to be able to look up at the sky and actually see things.”

Before retiring in 1997, Dixon taught at Everett Community College and Edmonds Community College as a part-time professor. After 40 years of teaching, he can’t stop thinking about his students, even in his retirement.

He and his longtime friend Lyle Gordon, who was a chemical engineer at Boeing before retiring, decided to start free tutoring sessions as part of the community center’s outreach program.

“He was a great teacher because he lets you use your own way to do things,” said Leslie Mutchler, a former student of Dixon’s at Everett Community College, where Mutchler is now serving as a math tutor.

Several days ago, Dixon bought two books for Matthew to help him better understand his class material.

“He really wants me to learn,” Matthew said. “I feel I’m not just one of many kids.”

Dixon said teaching is all about “giving something that can change people’s life.”

“You can’t be a good teacher unless you want to give away yourself to students,” he said.

Reporter Tieh-Pai Chen: 425-339-3432 or pchen@heraldnet.com.

Tutoring

The free tutoring program for math, physics, chemistry and the WASL is available from 3 to 6 p.m. every Tuesday and Thursday at the First Baptist Church community center, 3120 Wetmore Ave., Everett. For more information, call 425-879-1581.