Former Speech Teacher Says Goodbye to Mentor
By Ann Shofner, former speech teacher | Tuesday, February 10, 2015 2:47 PM
My junior year in college at West Texas State University, I joined the WT Speech Team, and it is then that I first met Guy Paul Yates. On one particular trip to Arizona to compete, we stopped in El Paso to spend the night because Guy loved to eat across the border. The morning that we headed out to Tucson, Guy took us to the market in Juarez.
There were 5 five students and Guy in a station wagon filled with luggage and debate tubs. We were literally “packed” into that vehicle. Guy told us that we didn’t have any more room for stuff so we should avoid buying any “ridiculous” souvenirs. Well, as students do, the five of us showed back up to the car with ornamental birdcages, large straw baskets, over-sized sombreros and piñatas (mine was a blue donkey… tucked inside my sombrero). Guy just stared at us in disbelief and told us to pack into the car but that we would have to hold our purchases all the way to Tucson and back to Canyon, Texas. He didn’t get mad, he just solved the problem the only way he knew how. Fortunately, we had a great tournament and on the way home, not only were we holding our Juarez souvenirs, we were holding our trophies too.
My coach, my mentor, my friend, Guy Yates passed away this morning, Tuesday, Feb. 3. His last night in hospice, he was surrounded by family and many of his former students who each had their own story to tell about Guy. We laughed and cried and hugged each other and knew that we were all facing the loss of a man who had impacted so many lives.
Guy Yates served state and national speech organizations well during his career at West Texas A&M University. He was on the Executive Council for Texas Forensic Association, served as Executive Secretary and Comptroller of Texas Speech Communication Association, and judged at UIL State for many years as well as hosting UIL Super Conferences. Guy started the WT Speech, Theatre and Debate camp in 1978, and it continues training high school students today. He ran numerous college and high school tournaments. For six years, he served as National Tournament Director for the AFA-NIET. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Award by both AFA-NIET and TSCA. In 2013, Guy was one of the first inducted into the West Texas A&M University Communication Hall of Fame. But Guy was so much more than these accomplishments.
Guy was a teacher of teachers. Many of his former students became high school or college speech teachers. The principles that he instilled have been taught over and over again in classrooms that Guy never entered. Whether it was taking his interpersonal communications class or working one on one with him in a coaching session, you took something away with you that was a life lesson. After many hours of practice and before a round of competition, Guy would look you straight in the eyes and say, “You are ready. Now go have fun!”
American historian Henry Adams stated, “A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.” This is Guy Paul Yates. Guy was a legend, and the legacy he left in the discipline of speech and theatre is stretched across the United States. As his former speech students taught their own classes this morning, tears were shed. Tournaments will be held this weekend, and Guy stories will be told. Teachers preparing their students for UIL District will echo Guy Yates and tell them to “Walk, talk and act like a champion.”
Guy Paul Yates, you are my hero, my champion and now my guardian angel.
(Tribute written by former student Ann Shofner, who Guy coached and later trained to be a speech communication teacher. Shofner taught speech at Canyon High School for one year and 36 years at Tascosa High School in Amarillo.)