Byard “Doc” Deputy, class of ’46, with his wife Betty, has split loyalties: he attended EMC, graduated from Madison College, and worked for many years at the University of Virginia Medial Center.
Byard “Doc” Deputy grew up on a farm west of Harrisonburg, attending Weavers Mennonite Church and Eastern Mennonite School (EMS). In his mind, he spent way too much time hoeing thistles, removing rocks from the fields, and thinning corn. There were better things to do, thought the young man, like sneaking away on Sundays to play with Ottobine in the Rockingham County Baseball League (RCBL).
This is a good, early place to explain that Doc earned his nickname not because of his later profession of dentistry but because one day in Harrisonburg, a fed-up barber addressed his tiny squirming subject. “Doctor,” he said. “You just sit still or you’re going to lose your head.” And little Doc did.
An active, athletic child at a time when among Mennonites, such energies were to be devoted to work and not play, Doc says this was one reason, looking back, why he “didn’t just jump into Bible teachings.” Competitive athletics, according to the thoughts of that time, would foster aggressive, prideful behavior—directly challenging the ideal characteristics of modesty, humility and attentiveness to God.
Taking a swing on the family farm in Dale Enterprise, west of Harrisonburg.
“I had to go outside of school for my athletic experiences,” Doc says. Though he attended EMS for four years and then Eastern Mennonite College for two years, he never represented either institution in sports. He played in a Valley area basketball league, earning all-tournament honors one year (to be clear, that was the top five players in the Valley). He played in the RCBL and with Linville in the semi-pro Valley Baseball League.
Doc found an outlet for his athletic talents with the Linville Patriots of the Valley League.
By this time, Doc had transferred to Madison College, and was working hard to get into dentistry school. And when he did, he had a choice between a professional baseball contract and admission to the Medical College of Virginia (MCV).
“Well, that wasn’t hard,” Doc recalls. “I figured I had a better chance at a career in dentistry than I did in major league baseball.”
By his second year at MCV, Doc was a paid player-coach for the college’s baseball team, which competed against colleges that would eventually comprise the Old Dominion Athletic Conference, of which EMU is a member today.
After graduation in 1954, he began a two-year obligatory term of service in the Navy Dental Corps and almost immediately, found himself mysteriously summoned to a plum position at the Naval Academy. Upon arriving at Severn River Naval Command, he was told when and where baseball practice was. Mystery solved.
The rest of Doc’s illustrious life follows here in too small of a nutshell (Doc says that’s okay, because you can never waste too many words on sports): He marries Betty and they return to Dayton, where Doc opens a practice, plays baseball again, has two children. In 1960, the family moves to Charlottesville, where Doc works first at Blue Ridge Sanatorium and then moves to University of Virginia Medical Center, rising to become head of the division of dentistry. They have another child. Along the way, he earns a master’s in public health from the University of Michigan, passes up an opportunity to become the state dental director and also an opportunity to return to MCV to head a department of dentistry.
Doc’s children are involved in sports. He coaches Little League. His son Glenn ‘80 plays four years of No. 1 singles at EMU and is inducted into the Hall of Honor in 1981. In addition to tennis, Doc takes up golf. He retires in 1994 and in 2000, returns to Harrisonburg.
He and Betty “needed something to do in the winter and since we’re sports fans, we spend our winters in the gym watching basketball,” Doc says, kind of joking, but not really. If you go to a home game and want to meet Doc, just wait for that quiet moment after the music is turned off and before announcer Jeff Elliott starts to speak and shout “DDDOOOCCC.” Doc would be glad to meet you.
It was inevitable that Doc and Betty started supporting EMU athletics and the university that gave him a “good, solid preparation for dental school,” Doc says. He appreciates the efforts of former president Myron Augsburger ’55, a classmate of his, in starting intercollegiate athletics in 1965 (soccer was the first sport).
Some years back, Doc attended a Hall of Honor induction ceremony, in which Augsburger gave a formal address. In this context, the former classmate and president noted that it was unfortunate that EMC, at that time, did not have an athletics program “that would have let Doc express his abilities,” Augsburger remembered in a recent interview.
“It was quite an honor to hear that from the former college president,” Doc reflected. “But I think that’s it right there. That’s why I support this, because I didn’t have the chance. I’m just so glad it’s here and that students have the opportunity. You can learn a lot through sports. I think what people like Loren Swartzendruber and Dave King have done to support athletics at EMU is really great.”
When it comes down to it, though, Doc’s values align with those of EMU. “My favorite quote from the Bible is kind of a motto here at EMU: Micah 6:8. [He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.]
“That’s what I like about EMU: that’s what they teach their students. There’s a lot of variation in the world, but we have to learn to work with others, remembering to practice justice, be kind about it, and stay humble.”
