by Megan Krause
Throughout the 96 years he has lived, Dublin resident Herbert Coon has enjoyed a passion for teaching.
Behind his black horn-rimmed glasses, Coon is a verbal contender. He entices conversation through his intelligently presented viewpoints about society. He stresses the importance of living a well-rounded life, which includes the physical and the mental.
Even 30 years after retiring, Coon has never truly stopped teaching or learning. Now living in Dublin’s Trillium Place, the Brookdale Senior Living center located near Sawmill Road, Coon has a new set of students.
He started the Blending Generations program at Trillium Place, which aims to educate its participants by bridging the generation gap.
Coon invites students from Dublin Coffman High School to interact with Brookdale residents once a month, offering both age groups new perspectives Dublin Coffman science teacher Becky Saylor, who is the student advisor for this program, says the school tries to make sure each student council member participates in the program at least once.
Blending Generations has been in place since October 2006, says Lynne Smith, director of lifestyle programs at Trillium Place. The program averages six to 20 students a month October through May. Activities vary for the students, she says, from manning gift wrapping stations at Christmas for Trillium residents to Wii Guitar Hero demonstrations.
“Students sign up each month to participate. We get a nice mix of new and regular faces,” she says.
Blending Generations is important to Coon because of young people’s role in the future.
“The ball is going to be in their court now very shortly,” he says.
“When these kids share their ideas, goals, thoughts, ideals and experiences, it lifts up the old folks.”
Coon says he believes it’s time for the younger generation to step into their place in government and help make decisions about issues, such as Social Security and the national debt.
"We old folks, we've had our chance," Coon says.
"We need new blood. We need new ideas. We need new approaches."
He also encourages his peers to keep learning through a program called In the News. During these sessions, every Thursday, participants discuss current events and are invited to question the norm and discuss their opinions.
Beyond the programs, one student Coon teaches on a daily basis is Smith. She says she notes tidbits of wisdom Coon offers and uses them to challenge her daughter into thinking for herself.
“He keeps me on my feet, doesn’t judge and constantly challenges me to think,” Smith says.
Education has always been a priority for Coon.
He graduated from Bluffton University in 1935 with plans to teach science. However, jobs were scarce during the Depression, so Coon went back to school at The Ohio State University. He earned his master's and doctoral degrees in health and physical education to add coaching to his resume, increasing his chances of being hired.
Coon later taught at the Ohio University School, one building with students in kindergarten through 12th grade who were interested in a progressive teaching method. Students were not formally graded, but evaluated based on standardized test scores and work ethic.
"That's much better than stamping a poor student on the head every six weeks with a D," Coon says.
The University School's motto was “prize the doubt,” a phrase by which Coon says he lives.
"You really have to go out of your way to challenge your perceptions of things," he says.
When the school closed in 1968 after 35 years, Coon turned his focus to teacher education.
He encouraged soon-to-be professionals to have contact with their students and give their teaching a creative edge.
Coon and his family also moved to India in 1963, when the U.S. Agency for International Development funded a program at OSU to establish schools there. They lived a life of luxury, thanks to an exchange rate that favored the dollar.
"You live easily and comfortably, if you can put up with all of the dirt and the poverty, and the traffic conditions, and everything else that is very different (in India)," he says.
Living in India is just the beginning of Coon's international experience. He shared a love of travel with his wife, who died in 1995. They visited every state except Alaska, along with Spain, Portugal, Yugoslavia, Egypt, Australia, New Zealand, China and Switzerland.
"We enjoyed that very much," he says. "She was a great travel companion."
Coon's daughter Cynthia, 65, offered to fill in as his travel companion, and together they made it to Alaska, Costa Rica and South America. Although he has seen much of the world, Coon still admits he would have liked to visit more of South Africa.
Since his retirement, Coon's dedication to his profession has not been forgotten. In fall 2007, he received the Lifetime Service Award from Bluffton University for his commitment to service and education. "It was an unexpected pleasure," he says.
Bluffton's emphasis on peaceful resolution and focus on service influenced Coon to live his life with others in mind. He considers any random act of kindness an accomplishment. He judges this daily by trying to pinpoint times he touched someone positively. This may be as simple as prompting a smile, Coon says.
Relationships with the people he loves most have also had a profound impact on Coon. In addition to daughter Cynthia, he also has a son Lin, 55. He describes the strength that family brings as "a web of memories that ties you together even if they've gone on."
Although he has made a difference in Dublin, Coon says he has larger hopes for the country and the world. He would like the United States to become more of a moral leader in the world instead of depending on military influence.
"The big goal really is to try to help the world to try to solve problems peacefully rather than by war," he says.
Of all his successes, Coon says he prides himself most on simply living a long life. When asked what he considers his greatest accomplishment Coon answers, “Living to be 95. Just surviving.”
Megan Krause is a contributing writer for Dublin Life.