Children & Families Archives

Delawarean Recalls the Movers & Shakers Who Have Shaped His Home State

Written by Live Love Delaware on January 25, 2022. Posted in Working in Delaware.

Author John Riley’s Second Book Salutes Pro-golfer Ed “Porky” Oliver

On Sept. 15, 1953, Delaware’s elite gathered in Fournier Memorial Hall in Wilmington to salute two Delaware superstars: Ed “Porky” Oliver and Dave Douglas, the only two golfers from one state on the U.S. Ryder Cup squad.

“It was the dinner of the year,” says John Riley, author of How He Played the Game: Ed “Porky” Oliver and Golf’s Greatest Generation. “The governor was there, and the mayor was there. Oliver and Douglas were going to England and playing as partners — two guys from little Delaware.”

The local paper, The Journal Every Evening, noted that “both have been in the big money class the past two years.” But Oliver was outpacing his friend in earnings. “For 25 years, he was Delaware’s celebrity,” Riley says.

Today, most Wilmington-area residents have heard of Ed Oliver Golf Club, located on the city’s edge. But few know about the gregarious golfer for whom it is named. Riley is seeking to change that with the recent release of his book, published by Faith & Family Publications.

It is not the first time Riley has brought Delaware’s movers and shakers into the limelight. With former Philadelphia Eagle star and Delaware resident Kevin Reilly, he co-authored Tackling Life: How Faith, Family, Friends and Fortitude Kept an NFL Linebacker in the Game. Riley also wrote Delaware Eyewitness: Behind the Scenes in the First State.

Indeed, Riley has had a role in some of the state’s significant business undertakings. The many changes he witnessed are reflected in his books, which are odes to Delawareans and the forces that shaped them.

John Riley Shares Delaware History

Initially, Riley wanted to chronicle the decline of Hercules, a chemical company with a Delaware presence that dated back to the 19th century. But the autobiography buff also wanted to chronicle the eras that influenced him and the state’s history, including the Vietnam War draft era. Delaware Eyewitness became a memoir and an insight into Delaware business and politics.

Riley mentions some 400 local personalities in the book. But few would argue that that author also has a past worth telling. He grew up with eight siblings in a 900-square-foot home on Wilmington’s East Side. Porky Oliver and his family lived down the street. Oliver’s son, Bobby, and Riley played on the same high school golf team. When Riley caddied at Wilmington’s Rock Manor Golf Club, players often spoke glowingly of Oliver as a hero.

Riley attended Salesianum High School and the University of Delaware. As a college senior, he was drafted and entered Army Infantry Candidate School. Fresh from the Army, he considered running for U.S. Congress, much to Joe Biden’s dismay. Biden, who was running for the U.S. Senate, felt the two twentysomethings would be known as the “kiddie candidates,” Riley details in his book.

Riley eventually did spend time in public service. He served on the New Castle County Council and as director of business development for the Delaware Economic Development Office, the predecessor to the public-private not-for-profit Delaware Prosperity Partnership organization.

A Ringside Seat

Riley participated in significant business deals that changed the state’s economic landscape. In 1994, he helped engineer MBNA’s purchase of DuPont’s Louviers complex — golf course and all. Three years later, Riley was on the team that convinced AstraZeneca to make Wilmington its North American headquarters.

His roles put him in the eye of big business, and he joined Hercules when the company specialized in chemicals for paper processing. Riley was head of government and public relations at Hercules, and when the Ashland Corporation purchased and dissolved Hercules, he became the specialty chemical company’s director of government relations.

Riley also witnessed the transformation of DuPont, which merged with Dow Chemical in 2017. MBNA was later sold to Bank of America. But out of change comes progress. While AstraZenca has since downsized, the Wilmington campus now accommodates other major corporations, and soon it will have residential and retail space.

Those who cut their teeth in corporate banking and biopharma are making a difference in Delaware, Riley maintains. These sectors have subdivided, expanded and become entrepreneurial. In Delaware, biotech and fintech have emerged from pharma, chemicals and banking.

The state’s adaptability comes from the outstanding talent and intelligent people who live here, he says.

Delaware’s Golf Great

After detailing his experiences in Delaware Eyewitness, Riley’s thoughts drifted to the golfer Sports Illustrated had called the most popular man on the golf circuit. “He had a Pied Piper personality that people embraced,” Riley says. “They followed him and lived and died on his golf exploits his whole life.”

Porky’s portly body had earned him that nickname. But he had many others as well. “One golfer said if you called him by his real name, he probably wouldn’t have answered,” Riley says.

Delawareans, including News Journal sportswriter Al Cartwright, kept regular tabs on Oliver even after he’d moved from the state — and with good reason. Oliver won on the PGA Tour eight times and finished second in major championships.

In May 1960, Oliver was diagnosed with cancer and had a lung removed. He didn’t stay down for long – he was in a tournament by that fall. But after suffering a relapse, he returned to Delaware, where supporters, including President John F. Kennedy, raised funds to help the family. Oliver died in September 1961 at the age of 46. Olympian-turned-actor Johnny Weissmuller and Arnold Palmer sent flowers, and Bing Crosby, Ben Hogan and Sam Snead sent condolences by telegram.

When Riley was on the New Castle County Council in 1983, he and his colleagues, including now-Wilmington Mayor Mike Purzycki, successfully lobbied to rename the Greenhill Golf Club after Ed Oliver. Today, Riley is working with the city and the golf club management to tell Oliver’s story through photographs, trophies and other collectibles in the clubhouse.

At the event for Riley’s book release, not many of the 120 attendees knew the golfer personally. No matter. “They all had an interest,” Riley says. Purzycki and Governor John Carney spoke, along with former Phillie Phanatic Dave Raymond, motivational speaker Kevin Reilly, book advisor Don Kirtley and Tom Humphrey, the Delaware chair of the BMW Championship, which is coming to Wilmington Country Club in August 2022. There was an emotional moment when Oliver’s son and grandson addressed the crowd.

They were all on hand to celebrate a Delaware celebrity because he was a Delawarean. “It is,” an attendee commented, “a distinctly Delaware event.”

Book sales that night raised more than $1,700 for First Tee Delaware, a youth development organization that marries golf with a curriculum that builds life skills and empowerment. To purchase How He Played the Game, visit olivergolfbook.com.

Dual Language Immersion Initiative Enters Next Phase

Written by Live Love Delaware on December 27, 2021. Posted in Working in Delaware.

Delawareans with longish memories can think back a decade and remember the launch of the Dual Language Immersion Program. Close to 100 of those original kindergarteners are arriving this fall at Indian River High School, Caesar Rodney High School, and AI Du Pont High School, where they will start the next phase.

Those students who are ready will take AP Spanish or AP Chinese as freshmen and will then be eligible if they score well on the AP test to take classes at the University of Delaware or Delaware State University where they could be close to already earning a minor in the language by the time they graduate from high school.

The goal of the Dual Language Immersion (DLI) initiative, created by former Gov. Jack Markell, was to ensure the state produces “generations of Delawareans with advanced level language skills to keep Delaware economically competitive and to build stronger, more connected communities across the state,” said Gregory Fulkerson, Education Associate for World Languages and Dual Language Immersion.

Participation has grown over the past decade to more than 8,000 students enrolled at the end of the last school year, with estimates for the 2021-22 school year of 9,800 immersion students across 57 schools, including new kindergarten cohorts in nearly 30 schools.

“We know that immersion education is good for any learner, period, regardless of what their first language is, regardless of whether they already speak a language other than English at home, regardless of their socioeconomic status, regardless of their ability,” said Lynn Fulton, Education Specialist for Dual Language Immersion. “Schools and districts across the state are really paying attention to making sure that their immersion classrooms are no less diverse than the overall diversity of their schools and of their communities.”

From a demographic standpoint, Fulton says that DLI student enrollment is diverse — 23% are African-American; 27% are Hispanic or Latino; 22% of from are from low-income households; and 20% speak a language other than English at home as their primary language. In addition, every district’s DLI population includes special education students.

Delaware elementary Dual Language Immersion programs split the day equally into blocks of English-language instruction and instruction in the immersion partner language. While Spanish DLI programs are located across all three counties, the Chinese DLI programs are located in New Castle and Kent counties, Fulton said.

Dual Language Immersion’s Decade of Accomplishments

Fulkerson and Fulton said they’re proud of three major accomplishments from the past decade of dual language immersion learning:

Student-language proficiency among eighth graders – even with the challenges of the pandemic – hit the expectation that the state set at the beginning of the program for both non-native and native English speakers. Immersion partner language proficiency assessment takes place every year, starting in third grade.
Placing a focus on administrator professional learning and in-school support is building internal capacity of participating schools and districts. The state has done that by embedding dual language immersion coaches in districts across the state and building flexible structures that would allow expansion based on demand.
Learning in two languages is beginning to be more accepted and Delawareans are beginning to understand the value of learning in two languages. “This is a way to help [students] really get that sense of identity in their first language, their heritage language,” Fulkerson said.

Fulton says that students can be successful if they start a DLI program in either kindergarten or first grade. However, it is too difficult for the student to begin in second grade or beyond because so much foundational language has been developed in the first two years. An exception to this is students who have some background in the language at home or in another state; they may be able to enter Delaware DLI programs at any grade.

Fulton says she’s seen families come in from other states and choose where to live based on the availability of an immersion program at their child’s grade level. This has also happened within Delaware where parents have moved from one district to another and been able to transition their children into an existing immersion program.

Early on, the DLI team took administrators interested in exploring immersion programs on administrator study missions to see how it worked elsewhere. A visit to Wasatch School District in Utah had an impact on a number of Delaware administrators. “The superintendent of the school district told Delaware administrators that he had immersion programs in each of his elementary schools because he wanted to change the culture of his district,” Fulkerson said. “He wanted to create friendships where the students bond between languages and between cultures. He wanted to change the entire culture of his district into being an inviting place for cross-cultural friendships to develop.”

Cape Henlopen and Seaford School Districts have followed the lead of that Utah district by establishing dual language immersion programs in each of their elementary schools, allowing greater access for every student to learn in two languages.

“We know what the research says about the strong cognitive and academic benefits for learners in dual language immersion programs,” Fulkerson said. “But that friendship piece, I think, is such a powerful thing too. That’s really what we’re in this for— to ultimately create that positive inter-cultural, inter-language value between people.”

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