Mr. E. Mike Dobbins

Life is beautiful. You can see how beautiful in this leaning-back laugh on the young Mike Dobbins, drama and stagecraft teacher at Lincoln East High School, Lincoln, Nebraska, in this yearbook photo from the 1971-1972 school year. He's listed in the yearbook as Mr. E. Mike Dobbins, as he is in his obituary. What does the "E" stand for?

Could it be Ernest? Here, he looks so earnest as the Drama, Stagecraft, and Junior High Drama teacher, making an important point. I want to thank Nancy Mastalir Ruder for these wonderful photographs, and for sharing the sad news with some of Mr. Mike's former high school students, who loved him. Nancy and I are blogger pals who have never met; she learned of his death here in my blog, and I learned of her connection to Mike that way, too. She lives in Texas, I live in Illinois, and both of us used to live in Nebraska (different towns), which was coincidence enough. Now this.

And a sad, sweet remembrance now of Thomas Michael Pullin, known to locals and Heartland Theatre pals as Mike Pullin or Michael Pullin. He told me once, shortly before he died, as it turned out, that no one would know who he was when his obituary appeared, as it would say Thomas. Indeed, the local paper called him Thomas Pullin. But we all knew it was him.

And Mike, Michael, E. Mike, or Mr. E. Mike Dobbins, we know it's you who's gone now.  Nice to see you standing on the left, second row, with your Dionysians at Lincoln East High School, Lincoln, Nebraska.

Services for Mr. E. Mike Dobbins are August 3 at Calvert Metzler Memorial Home, and you can learn about how to make a memorial donation to Heartland Theatre there or here.

I am touched that Mike Dobbins will be buried at Evergreen Memorial Cemetery, where an actor might someday bring him back, laughing, in the Evergreen Cemetery Discovery Walk. Wouldn't that be something?