This profile of Dr. Darrell J. Drickey the first in an
on-going series of articles describing Mines alumni who have made significant
impacts on history.
Darrell James Drickey was born in Rapid City, South Dakota in
June, 1934. One of his maternal
great-grandfathers, George H. Sanders, was a pioneer rancher in Dakota
Territory in the 1880's. The Sanders
ranch along Rapid Creek near Caputa, South Dakota was to be Darrell's home for the next two
decades. The Sanders ranch was
celebrated in the area as having the largest private barns in the county, if
not the state. These were also known for
an ingenious method of rapidly unloading hay wagons that Mr. G. H. Sanders incorporated in the hay barn. Darrell was a typical farm/ranch boy which is
to say that early on he worked in the fields, with live-stock and with
machinery
He attended school from the first through ninth grades at
Caputa Consolidated School. In this
school there were sometimes one and sometimes two operating classrooms. During most of his time there, the school
room was lit by kerosene lamps or Coleman lanterns. Drinking water was hand pumped from a nearby household
well and carried to the school house in buckets by students appointed to the
duty by the teacher. All daily and
weekly janitorial work was done by students.
The student body numbered from 20 to 25 students in usually six or seven
active grades. On completing ninth grade
Darrell, as d...