The Quote 

“The ancients had only the books which they themselves wrote, but we have all their books and moreover all those which have been written from the beginning until our time.… Hence we are like a dwarf perched on the shoulders of a giant. The former sees further than the giant, not because of his own stature, but because of the stature of his bearer. Similarly, we see more than the ancients, because our writings, modest as they are, are added to their great works.” – William of Conches, 1123

The Giant

My grandfather, Daryl Hayes, passed away this week at the age of 84. He lived a long and by many accounts, successful life. To me he was like a giant, a larger than life figure around which so many stories and accomplishments circled. I’ve written this article to honor him, reflect on a few memories, and share some lessons. 

Like many legends, the story of Daryl Hayes starts in a small town. Daryl was born in Stanley, New Brunswick in 1942, to Freddy & Eileen Hayes, a school teacher and a postman who lived in an outlying area called Tay Creek. Daryl was the oldest of three boys and had plenty of adventures in his formative years. Here are a few stories which have been passed down to me. 

At the ripe old age of 6, at breakfast one morning his mother mentioned that she wished she could put the Christmas tree in the hallway, but there was no outlet there to plug in the lights. By the time she had returned from school, Daryl had installed a plug in the hall. Unsurprisingly, the house never burned down. 

At age 14, Daryl’s uncle let him store a car in their garage without his parents knowing. Over the next couple years Daryl and his good buddy Boyd fixed up the car. In an attempt to finally get the car started, they coasted it down the steepest hill in Stanley with Boyd behind the wheel and Daryl sitting on the fender, pouring gasoline directly into the carburetor. It started alright.  

In grade 12, after reading in their physics textbook about how to create a radio signal, Boyd and Daryl wound copper around tubes and broadcast a 1,000 AM radio signal. For nine months, they broadcast the weather, read the news, and shared special reports about Stanley from a radio station in Daryl’s parents attic with a range of 15 miles. The station gave off so much radiation that two stories down the brand new fluorescent light that Daryl’s father had installed over the sink couldn’t be turned off. One day when Daryl came home from school a Lands and Forrest truck was in the driveway. Two agents had been asking his mother if she knew what was happening up in her attic. Dumbstruck, she told them that she had no idea what they were talking about. The agents gave the boys a choice, they could destroy the broadcast equipment or pursue charges. They chose the former.

Daryl began his career as an educator when was 20 years old. After starting a family, he and his wife, Margaret would camp in New York State in the summers while Daryl worked on his Bachelors and eventually his Masters from the State University of New York. For his Masters thesis he wanted to view internal combustion. He requested some specialty glass that withstood heat from an Owens Corning plant close to his campus. The Owens Corning engineers told him that what he was attempting to do was impossible. Ultimately, Daryl accomplished his goal by figuring out how to torque the bolts so the glass did not crack under the immense heat of combustion. The university urged him to pursue patents, he let them have it for free. 

Throughout 60 years of service to the field of technology education and teacher training, Daryl served in multiple roles including:

• Teacher in Port Elgin, New Brunswick
• Teacher in Sackville, New Brunswick
• Teacher in Grand Prairie, Alberta
• Teacher in Châteauguay, Quebec
• Teacher at the Canadian Armed Forces base in Lahr, Germany
• Faculty member at the Nova Scotia Teachers College
• Teacher at Cole Harbour High School in Nova Scotia
• Practicum teacher evaluator for Acadia University
• Consultant for Mount Saint Vincent University
• Professor & program coordinator at Dalhousie University

Daryl consulted with Mount Saint Vincent University to create a technology education system for public schools in the country of Trinidad and Tobago. Some people might have taken a trip like that once and then consulted from afar afterward. Daryl went 27 times, and I don’t know if anyone paid him a dime.  

At the end of his career, Daryl became a professor and the coordinator of the Certificate in Technology Education program at Dalhousie University. He created the program to improve the quality of technology education throughout the province of Nova Scotia. The two-year program helped Atlantic Canadian teachers level up their teaching certification. Under his watch the program saw more than 10 cohorts of students graduate. In this role he operated in his sweet spot.   

In his spare time, Daryl was a volunteer firefighter and the director of Eastern Shore Ground Search & Rescue. In 2010, he received The Governor General’s Fire Services Exemplary Services Medal for over 30 years of exemplary service. For Eastern Shore Ground Search & Rescue he created the province’s first walkie-talkie repeater system which enabled their communications to stretch further, even through mountains. Daryl used his skill of invention to retrofit a school bus with custom search technology that allowed his team to be more effective. As a firefighter, Daryl created 200 different retrofits to a fire engine for everything from how to wear air tanks while in the driver’s cab to how to articulate the water dump system under pressure. In his spare time, he saved lives. 

The Memories

I remember a workshop full of customized tools, each of them a time capsule of a project with a purpose, littering his garage workshop that seemed to go on forever. I don’t know why I didn’t sneak in there more often to explore, but what I do remember was an endless labyrinth of gadgets that I didn’t understand. 

My memories of my grandfather, Daryl, or “Papa” as he was known to us, are scattered, but intact, here are a few that stand out. 

“How are you b’y?”, “What do you think about that b’y?”, were sentences I heard papa say to me often. I remember that hearing him say “b’y” instead of boy often caught me off guard, but eventually it simply became the ‘Papa way’ of saying it. A term of endearment and a memory to appreciate. 

On a school holiday in middle school I attended a professional development day with Papa. It must have been for technology education because I remember playing with circuit system starter kits and meeting his work friends. It was a unique experience being ‘on the job’ with Papa and one that I will cherish. 

For years Papa owned a Model-A Ford which he would drive in local parades. One summer my siblings and I joined him in the car and waved to the many onlookers. It may not have been able to reach top speeds, but his appreciation for the car was enough to impress me as a teenager.  

Growing up, Papa was one one of the only people I knew with a Master’s degree. I lauded this level of academic accomplishment and wished to someday be a “master” of education myself. Though I don’t think he needed a masters degree to accomplish the things that he did, I greatly appreciate his pioneering in the field of academics, which was a model for me to emulate.  

In 2018 Papa and Mama came to visit Tami and I in Thailand. They had travelled to Asia numerous times in the past, but they were in their 70s at this point. They stayed at a hotel downtown on the Chow Praya River. Papa and I would sit on the balcony and watch the barges go by while we talked about engineering and the construction projects that we could see in the distance. In the evenings we would have dinner outside, Papa always insisting that I ate the buffet, while I quizzed them about their past adventures, including the legends of Papa’s youth. I am so grateful that they came all that way to visit us and will cherish each of these memories as long as I live. 

The Lessons

If I have accomplished anything, or if I have been afforded any opportunity in life it’s because I stand on the shoulders of giants, like Daryl Hayes. The things that my grandfather accomplished are not about me at all, rather they are a testament to his larger than life example, true stories that will now be passed on as legends, with lessons that will inspire my children and future generations to come. Here are a few lessons that Papa taught me, each has a reflection question for you to consider: 

• Serve Others: Who has God put in your path that you can serve this week?  
• Do Good Work: How can you tenaciously develop your God-given abilities? 
• Build Something: In a world of consumers, what can you build that will add value to those around you? 
• Innovate: What limits can you push to engineer a better future for your family, community, or organization? 
• Don’t Take Yourself Too Serious: When was the last time that you hit the pause button, called a friend to share a story, and had a good laugh?

Peace & Blessings, b’y

– Josiah