PSJA elementary students learn story of school's namesake

SAN JUAN — Principal Virna Maldonado-Bazan greeted about 100 pupils gathered in the John Doedyns Elementary cafeteria with a hearty “Good morning.”

The children responded in kind and in unison: “Good morning.”

She asked them, “Do you know who John Doedyns was?”

And silence fell over the room.

Maldonado-Bazan told the students at the Pharr-San Juan-Alamo campus at 1401 N. Raul Longoria not to worry: When she was named principal in September, she didn’t know who he was, either.

But now, thanks to a visit by descendents of the late PSJA school board member and co-founder of the Magic Valley Electric Cooperative, those who walk the halls of John Doedyns Elementary will have a face to put with the name.

On Monday, Doedyns’ only surviving daughter — Patsy Taylor of Corpus Christi — and 10 grandchildren visited the school. They told the man’s story and donated a portrait and photos showing him in historical context.

John Gerard Christian Doedyns Sr. served on the PSJA school board for 17 years, spanning three decades, said granddaughter Sharon Pate of Fort Worth. Doedyns, who was born in 1888 in Pella, Iowa, to a family of Dutch immigrants, only studied through the seventh grade. But he would later come to recognize the importance of education, and after moving to Omaha, Neb., at the age of 20, he went back to school and became an attorney.

“Then he learned there was a wonderful land,” Pate said. “You can stick anything in that land and it will grow.”

In November 1917, Doedyns came to the Rio Grande Valley with his wife and two brothers, arriving by train in what would become Alamo.

He decided to plant broomcorn. That harvest went so well that “they almost got to pay off the land the first year,” Pate said.

Doedyns spoke three languages when he arrived in the Valley — English, Dutch and Bohemian — and after the move, he learned to read, write and speak Spanish.

He would adapt again — after private utility companies failed to extend electric service into rural South Texas — and become one of the founders of Magic Valley Electric Cooperative.

Among the images his family brought to the elementary campus Monday was a 1952 picture capturing Doedyns, U.S. Sen. Lyndon B. Johnson and U.S. Rep. Lloyd Bentsen at an event to mark the 15^th anniversary of Magic Valley.

In February of 1960, Doedyns died suddenly of a heart attack at age 72, leaving behind seven children — all alumni of PSJA High School.

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Martha L. Hernández covers health, business and general assignments for The Monitor and El Nuevo Heraldo. She can be reached at mlhernandez@themonitor.com and (956) 683-4846.

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