View photo/Loretta Sword Author Richard Hartgraves relaxes in the family room of his Pueblo West home.

Longtime educator, dyslexic, publishes childrens book

By LORETTA SWORD
The Pueblo West View

An Oklahoma high school counselor once advised Richard Hartgraves that he'd better plan to make a living with his back, because he wouldn't do it with his brain.

Dyslexia, a little-known neurological disorder in the 1950s, had resulted in IQ and college-aptitude test scores that were not a true reflection of his intelligence or academic capabilities.

He struggled with college for a year, he said, then enlisted in the Army, where to his surprise, another battery of tests resulted in an invitation to enroll in the officers candidate school.

Hartgraves said that was "a major turning point" in his life.

"I thought, 'Lo and behold, I'm not dumb. I'm not mentally deficient'," the 71-year-old said during an interview last week.

So he turned down the opportunity to make a career of the military because "I wanted to get out and get on with other things," he remembered.

Those "things" included a distinguished career in education, first as a teacher then a long-time counselor, and most recently as author of "Little Cedar," a childrens book that should hit local retail shelves by next month.

With a confidence he had never known before, Hartgraves left the Army after two years and enrolled at East Central State College in Ada, Okla.

There, he was befriended by a professor/mentor who worked closely with Hartgraves to help him learn ways to get around his learning disorder, and who arranged for the young student to be tested orally in many of his classes.

Hartgraves graduated with a "B" average, he said, and took his first job in 1960 as an industrial arts teacher at Pleasant View Junior High School on the St. Charles Mesa in rural Pueblo County.

Hartgraves had long before discovered his talents as a woodworker and artist - skills that he later learned are common among dyslexics. His home is filled with paintings, hand-carved wooden toys and games for his grandchildren, and decorative pieces that reflect his love of both detail and simplicity.

"The right hemisphere of the brain is actually larger in dyslexics than in most people, so many of us are blessed with creativity," he explained.

But it was his empathy, and his dedication to urging his students to seriously contemplate their future lives while building shelves and knick-knacks, that caught the attention of then-principal Jerry Ellis.

Ellis urged Hartgraves to consider counseling as a career, which he did while earning a master's in counseling at Mesa State College in Gunnison. He also has a vocational specialist degree, "something between a master's and a doctorate," he said, from Colorado State University.

After a "really disastrous" year of teaching in Missouri, Hartgraves said, he came back to Colorado, and took a counseling job at County High School. That's where he spent the rest of his career - one that brought numerous honors and awards - until retiring in 1990.

Richard Hartgraves

It was right around then that Hartgraves started mulling the idea of writing a book. It's not something most dyslexics would ever consider, but this man already knew his ways around the obstacles he knew he would face.

And, writing in longhand before striking the first letter on his computer keyboard, he began to tell the "truly fictional" story of two 10-year-old cousins who solve a mystery during a summer visit to their grandparents' ranch near the tiny community of Little Cedar.

"Little Cedar" went to press late last month at PublishAmerica.

Hartgraves admits with a chuckle that the main characters - Pud and Skeeter - as well as the familiar setting of his grandparents' ranch at the foot of Oklahoma's Kiamichi Mountain Range, are based more on fact than fiction.

'I was tagged 'Pud' early on because I was kind of chubby," he explained.

And his cousin, who died before Hartgraves truly started on the book, "was tagged 'Skeeter' because he was never still, even when he was sitting down. He was everywhere, kind of like a mosquito."

Although some of the basics of the cousins' adventures (and misadventures) in "Little Cedar" are true, he said, "Most of it's been fictionalized and embellished. The book grew a life of its own."

He undertook the project for several reasons.

First, as a tribute to his beloved cousin. "For the memory of Skeeter," he said quietly.

Second, he said, "I wanted my grandkids to know what 'Papa Bear' (Grandpa) went through when he was a kid. Those were really different times - more innocent. And there was time to contemplate life, and the simple things we don't have time to appreciate today."

And finally, he added, "I did this to prove to myself that I could do it. I'm plagued with severe dyslexia. It's amazing that God made it possible for me to have a career in counseling and education, but this (book) is a true gift."

Hartgraves said he hopes teachers of children ages 9-12 will use "Little Cedar" in their classrooms. The story not only includes "mini-lessons" in biology and astronomy, he said, but provides a realistic glimpse into another time and is imbued with a tenderness and compassion not found in many of today's childrens books.

"Little Cedar" is available online at Amazon.com and PublishAmerica.com, and should be available in local bookstores soon, Hartgraves said.

More information about the book, as well as about dyslexia (including some useful links to other resourceful sites) and Hartgraves, is available online.

On the Net:

Little Cedar: www.freewebs.com/littlecedar.

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