Prof was into the outdoors before it was cool

Story and photography by Jason Straziuso

When Ron Dingle was in high school in the late 1950s, the now-bustling Dayton suburb of Beavercreek, Ohio, was a farm town. But he didn't take a white-T-shirt-and-slicked-back-hair approach to the era. Think punk blond, three nose rings and a body of tattoos. OK, that's a stretch. But it gives you an idea of how cutting edge Ron Dingle was in those days.

Extreme skier? BASE jumper? Actually, fast-moving water was Dingle's fix. Kayaks - those skinny vessels boaters use to shoot down 100-foot waterfalls - didn't exist. But way before the X Games or body-piercing, a teen-aged Dingle crafted his own kayak from orange crates. "It was," he admits, "nothing we would call a kayak today."

Fast-forward 40-some years and countless adventures. It's the last trip of 1999. The leaves, still soaked in color, prove it's still October. The frigid cold and mammoth snowflakes seem to indicate otherwise.

Assistant Professor Ron Dingle and Clay Harvey, a graduate assistant in recreation studies, talk with other adventurous types during a fall 1999 trip to West Virginia's Upper New River.

For Dingle, an Ohio University assistant professor of recreation and sports sciences, this isn't just another day at the office. Of the 30 or so boaters with him on West Virginia's Upper New River, half are wet by mid-morning. The river is not overly difficult, but small rapids have presented big problems for gear-heavy canoes.

The snow stops by noon, but rapids approach. The river bends right and then quickly left. Several boats overturn. Dingle and his graduate assistants battle the currents to offer aid. One of them, Paul Cindric, looks exhausted.

"You're not thinking about going any farther are you?" Cindric asks hopefully. "No," Dingle says. "It's just too cold."

Now off the river and huddled with his students around a fire, he reflects on the abbreviated venture.

"That's the first time I remember having to cut a trip short," says the 56-year-old Dingle, who's led some 5,000 students on wilderness trips since 1966.

That's the year Dingle - who earned a bachelor's in education from Ohio University a year earlier - returned to Athens to teach. Fresh out of graduate school at the University of Massachusetts, he worked with Professor John O'Neal to start a camping class. Later, in the early '70s, Dingle and his colleagues won approval to create a recreation major.

Canoeing. Kayaking. Rafting. Hiking. It could be called Dingle's School of Adventure Rec. And the graduates - true to their mentor's spirit - hold adventurous posts around the country.

"He's sent out tremendous professionals who have some of the best hands-on experience," says Sue Ellen Miller, interim director of the university's School of Recreation and Sports Sciences. "He's done his stuff in real places. He doesn't just go to the local pond."

For a long time, Ohio University didn't have any boats to put in a pond, local or otherwise. So in 1983, Dingle bought six used kayaks, the foundation for classes soon so popular that they filled up as soon as registration opened.

TOP: Dingle emerges from his tent; BOTTOM: a wet traveler dries a sock over the campfire.

"It was so new, everyone wanted to be a part of it," recalls Dingle's first graduate student, Karen Muench, BSED '82 and MSPE '84, who now patrols the Ohio River for the Ohio Division of Natural Resources. Through all the classes and trips, so much stuff happened that I gained a lot of confidence in myself."

Surprisingly, this outdoor enthusiast, the man with a radiating smile and soft laugh, can seem imposing. Standing just 5-foot-6, he commands attention and earns respect - quietly.

Outdoors, he's the most congenial person you'll ever meet. ("Come paddle with me," his demeanor seems to say. "Stand with us by the fire.") Inside, he's hurried, hard to pin down. But the "indoor shell," say students past and present, isn't hard to crack.

"He is probably the most patient and enduring person I've had the pleasure to work with," says Lance Luke, BSRS '85 and MSPE '88, operations manager for Wildwater Ltd. in Ducktown, Tenn. Indeed, many students - Luke included - return to paddle with Dingle on winter and spring break trips.

His students speak of how Dingle teaches in a hands-on, experiential way. They come away with lessons about life as well as the outdoors.

"He has a real strong presence," says Jenny Kafsky, BSED '91 and MSPE '92, a former Aquatic Center director now pursuing a doctorate in adventure education at Clemson. "He's very encouraging, but in a real quiet way. You always know he's there."

That philosophy of gentle encouragement sometimes takes restraint.

"I've probably bitten my tongue a time or two," Dingle says. "You've got to give people time to decide what they're going to do."

Working with students, and seeing them conquer new challenges, has been the most gratifying apsect of Dingle's almost 34 years with the university.

"When you do things outside the classroom, particularly on the longer trips, students learn a lot of life lessons," says Dingle, who last year received the Class of 1950 Faculty Teaching Award from the Student Alumni Board. "Seeing them become interested in the outdoors and really accomplish something, that's what I've found worthwhile."

Five favorite trips Here are Ron Dingle's favorite weekend destinations and ways to get more info. Striper fishing in Chesapeake Bay. Williamsport (Md.) Visitors Center, (301) 582-0813. Backpacking a Virginia section of the Appalachian Trail. Mount Rogers (Va.) Outfitters, (540) 475-5416. Paddling West Virginia's Cheat River. River Tours, 1-800-4RAFTIN. Paddling or rafting the New River in West Virginia. North American River Runners, 1-800-950-2585, or go to www.narr.com on the Web. Trout fishing on West Virginia's Cranberry River. Monongahela National Forest, (304) 636-1800. For other outdoor recreation ideas and information, check out www.gorp.com

His students - recreation majors who've focused their studies on outdoor education, adventure recreation, recreation management or therapeutic recreation - have accomplished plenty. They are outfitters, camp directors and outdoor educators from Maine to Colorado to North Carolina.

"He runs such a good program," says Ray Smith, a friend and Hamilton, Ohio, firefighter who started paddling with Dingle after Muench introduced them. "He's really safety-conscious and detail-oriented, and an honest, caring man."

Barbara Dingle spotted the latter traits when she and Ron were undergraduates in the early 1960s. Paired up during a social dance class, the two have never really stopped dancing. They were married the day before Dingle started graduate school.

These days, the Dingles have more time for each other, especially since Ron is working himself out of a job. He officially retired last year, but he's still teaching one quarter a year and, for at least the next few seasons, will lead whitewater treks for the university.

The end of an era? Probably. His students say he can't be replaced. But change isn't bad, Dingle says. New classes, perhaps focusing on the environment or caving, could emerge.

"Everyone who comes in has to bring his own niche, and not everyone is going to want to do the things I wanted to do," he says.

Dingle, meanwhile, will have more time to linger indoors - over his model trains and woodworking projects. And he plans to venture out for a trip or two. He wants to go to Alaska, although Barbara favors Hawaii. It seems that Ron is adventurous enough for both jaunts.

Jason Straziuso, BSJ '97, MSJ '00, accompanied Dingle on the fall 1999 trip to West Virginia. He recently accepted a job with the Paris bureau of The Associated Press after completing an Ohio University-sponsored internship there.