With fond memory: Diana Rose, Andy Mollema and Guil Northrup

This past year MSCI lost three of our beloved colleagues. As we reflect back on this year we wanted to take a moment to shine a light on these three amazing speech coaches.

Diana Rose

Diana was a coach/director/mentor/teacher, who taught drama, debate and forensics at Brighton High School for more than three decades. She began her career in the mid-1960s and touched thousands upon thousands of lives. After retirement, Diana stayed active in MIFA, serving as a volunteer in the office for sixteen years and directing the IE Judge Certification program. She made such an impact statewide that the Michigan Interscholastic Forensics Association established “The Diana Rose Individual Events Award,” given each year to an outstanding high school forensics coach who is recognized for his/her hard work and high professional commitment to the activity.

Diana was known for encouraging her students to participate in extracurricular activities, including debate and forensics. She was kind, caring and knowledgeable. She is missed in the community by former students, colleagues, and friends.

Andy Mollema

Written by John Lawson

Andy was a wonderful person and a superb educator. I coached debate and a bit of forensics with him in 1974-75 at AA Pioneer HS. His kids (team and classroom) loved him. He knew both content and technique in both activities but, more importantly, had great empathy, integrity and the ability to communicate with adults and students in a kind, caring manner which could diffuse difficult situations. I believe he served twice as MSCI President (then it was the MSCA-A for association) and also was elected several times to the MIFA Forensic Council. He coached debate and IE at CMU while getting his MA.

He ran one of the largest debate invitationals in the State, which I “inherited” when I coached at Pioneer. He told me not to worry, that he would handle all the logistics (rooms, invitations, food, etc.). All I had to do was some tabbing and announcements at the beginning and awards at the end. He was right.

About a year later, he remarried his wife Martha (Marti) who coached at Kalamazoo Central and moved to the west side of the state where he taught and coached at Three Rivers HS until his retirement. He and Marti moved Up North to Frankfort near Traverse City. The last time I saw him was about three summers ago at the 100th anniversary celebration for MIFA in Lansing.

A truly wonderful man who will be missed by his many friends and acquaintances throughout the State.

Guil Northrup

Guil was the heartbeat of Holt Debate and Forensics leading the programs for over 25 years. Guil was not only the coach of these programs he was also the head of transportation for his teams. Driving the minivan around for his team with a coffee in one hand and the newspaper in the other he always found a way to get his team to where they needed to be. Holt had threatened to cut these programs numerous times and he rescued them having his students use the skills they learned to present to the Board of Education and saved both programs.

Guil was known to all as curmudgeon with the heart of gold. While always having a bit of gruff to his voice, he would make sure that everyone around him was taken care of. I am sure wherever he is right now he has a cup of coffee in one hand and a newspaper in the other. Guil Northrup will be missed by all those who got to enjoy his company.

Originally published in the MSCI Year in Review, May 2021.