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It is with humility and trepidation that I rise to recount Dan Dykstra's years as a teacher, leader, and friend of the University of Utah, its College of Law, his Utah colleagues, and his Utah students. Humility because there are those with us today who are better able to recall those years like his lifelong friends Bob and Peggy Swenson and Rita Fordham. Also, there are others who knew the Dykstra family as close friends during all their Utah years and could speak more eloquently than I, but who could not be here today, like Fred and Belva Emery, Spence Kimball, Evelyn and Wally Bennett, and Francis and Bob Schmid. I speak with trepidation because Dan Dykstra was noted for his humility and selflessness; a man always concerned for the well-being and success of others and not one to publicize his own achievements or volunteer his personal successes. Dan did not, as the Irish say, "put on airs" about himself. Therefore, because I suspect he would frown upon and be uncomfortable with our praising him, I beseech Dan to forgive me now, and in the hereafter, for recounting how much he has meant to all of us as a friend, colleague, mentor, leader, and as an example-both in his professional and private life-as an exemplary husband, parent and teacher, and as a person of unflinching personal integrity. |
