Hudson native encourages students to dream big – starting now

by Nikki Custy

David Paul Kirkpatrick, a 1969 graduate of Hudson High School and 2015 inductee into the school’s Distinguished Hall of Fame, wasn’t coy with his message to students when he spoke at the high school last fall.

Returning to his alma mater provided Kirkpatrick an opportunity not only to inspire students to see the possibilities ahead, but to remind them that their life now is not a dress rehearsal.

“I think you get a lot of that as a kid, that it’s all about tomorrow,” he said. “I tell students that every part of your life is important, even the falls and tumbles. You can learn something from every experience.”

Kirkpatrick credits his education in Hudson for cultivating his appreciation for the arts and providing a foundation that helped him navigate the upper echelons of Tinseltown. He said he can “still to this day” name 15 Hudson teachers who influenced him.

While discussing the character of John Keating, a teacher played by Robin Williams in “Dead Poets Society,” Kirkpatrick shared pictures and stories about former teacher Mr. Petrus and how he “spoke to not only the minds but to the hearts” of his students. To this day, when Kirkpatrick sees clips from “Dead Poets Society,” it is not Williams but Mr. Petrus he sees standing on a chair in the middle of the classroom.

“He was really trying to get literature into our blood, especially poetry,” he said.

Kirkpatrick shaped the lead character from “Mr. Holland’s Opus,” music teacher Glenn Holland, played by Richard Dreyfuss, using Roland Gamble, a 28-year music educator at Hudson High. Like his movie counterpart, Gamble had a vision of himself as a composer, not a teacher. What he and his fictional alter ego came to realize was that students themselves, not transcendent musical compositions, are the real opus.

Although Hudson teachers certainly had an impact on Kirkpatrick’s life and career, a pivotal event that shaped Kirkpatrick’s future occurred when he was 12. Like many American children growing up in the ’50s and ’60s, Kirkpatrick was a fan of the “Wonderful World of Disney.”

“Every Sunday night at 7 p.m., Walt Disney would introduce the story for that evening,” he said. When Disney did not appear for two Sundays in a row, Kirkpatrick found out from his father that he was very ill. He decided to cheer Disney up by making a short movie in his backyard, starring two of his four brothers and the girl next door. He shot the movie on an 8mm Kodak Brownie motion picture camera that he had purchased with earnings from his Plain Dealer paper routes.

“The backyard movie was typical kid stuff,” he said. “An adventure piece with a knight, a dragon and a princess.”

Ever the storyteller, Kirkpatrick’s rendition had a twist: The girl somehow ended up with the dragon. After retrieving the developed film from Saywell’s and painstakingly splicing it together with splicing tape, Kirkpatrick’s father placed a long-distance phone call to Disney’s secretary.

“After asking me questions about my film and how I shot it, she assured me she would borrow an 8mm projector from the animation department and run it for Mr. Disney in his room at the Burbank Hospital,” Kirkpatrick said. “My father said, ‘Let this be a lesson to you, always be nice to the secretaries.’”

Shortly thereafter, Kirkpatrick received a letter personally written by Walt Disney. “It was a very sweet letter that said the world needs young people that can make us laugh and smile,” he said. Disney further said that once Kirkpatrick was old enough, he should consider attending a new art school he was opening in Burbank, Calif. Six weeks after writing that note, Disney passed away.

Kirkpatrick attended the California Institute of the Arts and graduated in 1973. He began as a story editor at Paramount Pictures and later became president, overseeing films such as “Witness” and “Top Gun” and franchises including “Indiana Jones,” “Star Trek” and “Friday the 13th.” While at Disney, he was president of production for Touchtone Pictures and Walt Disney Pictures.

“On the first day on the job as president of production at Disney in the late ’80s, I discovered that my office was furnished with Walt’s old animation desk,” he said. “I was so moved. Talk about full circle.”

Today Kirkpatrick spends his time doing speaking engagements, promoting his new book “The Dog,” and working in his office at the MIT Center For Future Storytelling, that he co-founded. He lives on a farm an hour outside of Boston with his brother, Joe, a cardiologist at St. Vincent Hospital in Wooster, Mass.

“I think the big takeaway for me, and what I want to share with students is, a small-town education can deliver a very big life,” Kirkpatrick said. “It is so important for our students to hear the stories and pathways of our alumni in order to help them realize the broad range of opportunities that wait for them once they graduate from our school system.”

Featured image photo caption: David Paul Kirkpatrick, a 1969 graduate of Hudson High School, signs Senior Holly Pappano’s copy of his new book “The Dog.” A prolific writer and former producer with Disney and Paramount, Kirkpatrick shares his message about the power of storytelling with local students. Photo courtesy of the Hudson City School District