Yes It’s True: ‘Corky’ Doxey’s passing was more than tragic

Like so many others in this community, I was deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Harold “Corky” Doxey Jr. last weekend. Though I wasn’t as close a friend as former Wayland teacher and coach Clif Sage, I had a couple of periods knowing him up close and personal that were more than interesting.

I knew him in high school as a member of the class right behind me. He was the classic epitome of a decent, honorable guy.

I got to know him better after he was discharged from the Army and somehow was stricken with a form of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) that left him with the inability to speak. Somehow, we often got together in 1973-74 to attend Wayland High School basketball games, both home and away. The Wildcats went 15-6 that year and were exciting to watch.

Corky, despite his disability, became friends with my pseudo fraternity known as the Ogres in Grand Rapids. He even emerged as the 1974 champion in the group’s annual foosball tournament.

I didn’t know all the ins and outs about what went wrong in his life and I didn’t have a good handle on just what PTSD was. All I really knew was that Corky was a huge sports fan and was even more of a devotee of Wayland High School sports.

Not long afterward I took a job as sports editor of the Albion Evening Recorder and moved away, and I learned that somehow Corky had had a breakthrough in therapy and regained his power of speech, which indeed gladdened my heart.

Fast forward to early in the second decade after the turn of the century and Corky could be found every weekday working hard as a custodian at Wayland Middle School. He told me he really enjoyed the job because he was such a booster of the local school system and the students. I hear tell he was even more valuable in keeping an eye on bullying problems and even taking under his wing young people who might someday also become janitors, taking on honest and needed work.

But then the Wayland Board of Education was serenaded and persuaded by private companies to eliminate the custodial staff, made up mostly of people who lived here, and instead hire employees of this firm to save oodles of money.

What school board members missed wildly here was the immense non-monetary value of custodians like Corky Doxey.

As was stated in his obituary, Corky was much more than just a school employee who did his job well. He also had a stake in the success of the local school system, he was a staff member who did just as much if not more for the benefit for young people in Wayland. Corky was said to have bled green and white and Sage passed along tidbits about how he contributed to the Wildcats’ athletic program.

It was a terrible blow to Corky Doxey when he was told to clean out his closet, leave the keys at the principal’s office and walk out the door. There was no provision for glad handing and some sort of cake and ice cream party, like what so many employees have enjoyed.

In other words, it seemed like all that he did with loving care for more than 35 years for Wayland schools meant nothing.

Corky told me after this that he had no intention of ever setting foot again on Wayland schools property or even on the football field, baseball field, tennis court or basketball court. I’m not certain that he followed through on that promise, but I never saw saw him at any Wildcat ballgame or meet after he was shown the door with so little regard for his services.

I wrote a column using Corkey as the best example of the heartlessness of union busting and corporate greed. Perhaps Clif Sage can tell us whether or not “Corky came back.” As far as I know, he didn’t.

I would like to add to his obituary that part of the reason he passed was a broken heart.