Monday, Mar. 22, 1937
Dykstra to Wisconsin
Many a man is made by catastrophe. Ulysses Simpson Grant was made by the Civil War. Banker Amadeo Peter Giannini was made by the San Francisco Fire. Noah and Cincinnati's City Manager Clarence Addison Dykstra were alike floated up to eminence by a flood. Last week City Manager Dykstra, the most prominently mentioned candidate to succeed ousted Glenn Frank as President of the University of Wisconsin (TIME, Dec. 28; Jan. 18), met three of the University's Progressive regents in Chicago to discuss the job. He did not like having his salary cut from Cincinnati's $25,000 to Wisconsin's $15,000, but after a three-hour conference, during which he was promised a car, a chauffeur, a horse, and other perquisites, he accepted. Thereupon the committee prepared to have his appointment formally confirmed by the full Board of 15 Regents this week.
Big, rawboned Mr. Dykstra (first syllable as in dike), who stands 6 ft. 3 3/4 in. and weighs just 200 lb., was born 54 years ago in Cleveland, Ohio, where his father was pastor of the Dutch Reformed Church. He graduated from the University of Iowa, studied two-and-a-half years at the University of Chicago but did not take a Ph.D. After teaching political science at Ohio State and the University of Kansas, he became executive secretary of the Cleveland Civic League in 1918. That work appealed to him so much that he spent four years with similar organizations in Chicago and Los Angeles, where he worked up to be commissioner and director of personnel of the city water and power department before going to Cincinnati in 1930. During the worst of last January's flood City Manager Dykstra, granted unprecedented dictatorial powers by Cincinnati's city council, became a national hero by pluckily wading around in hip boots, staying at his desk for 36 hours at a stretch. Unanimously, drenched Cincinnati hailed him its saviour and hero.
Twice married Mr. Dykstra has a daughter Elizabeth, 24, a stepson Franz, 16, who is a junior at the University School of Cincinnati, a 2-year-old grandson named Stephen Dykstra Posey. Last week Cedric Parker of Madison's Capital Times, a Progressive organ which remorselessly hounded glib, dressy Republican Frank, interviewed Mr. Dykstra and found that "he does not wear spats, carries no cane, and doesn't care if his trousers are in press."
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