English instructor, colleague and mentor Rick Dirck passed away on July, 20.
\nAs an adjunct faculty member in the Language Arts Department at San Jose City College from 1996 to 2013, Dirck instructed many courses including basic skills, composition and critical thinking. He was also an English teacher at Silver Creek High School where he had taught for several years prior to teaching at SJCC.
\n\u201cThose who worked with him remember his wonderful sense of humor and love of music,\u201d Dean of Language Arts Keiko Kimura said. \u201cHe will be sorely missed by his SJCC colleagues and students.\u201d
\nDirck also worked in the Reading and Writing Center at the Cesar Chavez Library. There he would work with student tutors and provide<\/p>\n
individualized support to students seeking assistance with their reading and writing.
\n\u201cHe was a great teacher. He helped me so many times with my papers and gave me great advice on how to be a better student,\u201d said 23-year-old business major Elizabeth Linares.
\nShortly following Dirck\u2019s passing, his family hosted a memorial at the Alum Rock Southern Baptist Church on Saturday, July 27.
\nThe church was filled with family members, students and teachers from both SJCC and Silver Creek High School, and friends.
\n\u201cRick Dirck was a great teacher and we became friends quick,\u201d said Mark Curran who teaches World and U.S. History at Silver Creek and had worked with Dirck. \u201cHe was definitely a gifted teacher who related to his students, and whose impact will never be forgotten.\u201d
\nSeveral students took the podium to express the fun times with Dirck and, in some cases, to also express their grief about losing him.
\nSeveral of Dirck\u2019s former students, coworkers, friends and family members stuck around after the memorial to remember the good times with Dirck. Longtime friend and fellow coworker, Dan Haley who also teaches English, is one particular teacher who will miss Dirck\u2019s presence on the SJCC campus.
\n\u201cDirck was one of the first teachers I would talk to when I started SJCC,\u201d Haley said.
\n\u201cHe had a very easy going, no nonsense attitude about nearly everything, and he was great at camaraderie. He once gave me an idea for my (English) 1B class that I continue to use today.\u201d
\nHaley is has organized a memorial for Dirck at The Garrett restaurant on Sept. 27 begining at 3 p.m. for everyone who did not get a chance to make it to the memorial on July 27. The Garrett is located at 1777 South Bascom Avenue in Campbell, California.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
English instructor, colleague and mentor Rick Dirck passed away on July, 20. As an adjunct faculty member in the Language Arts Department at San Jose City College from 1996 to 2013, Dirck instructed many courses including basic skills, composition and critical thinking. He was also an English teacher at Silver Creek High School where he…<\/p>","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"staff_name":[606],"class_list":["post-8675","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-campus-life","staff_name-patrick-loera"],"yoast_head":"\n