Don Colby '55 graduated from Lyndon Teachers College with a degree in education. A resident of East Concord, Vt., he attended Concord High School and graduated in 1951.
As a member of the Class of 1955, Colby and his classmates were the first to spend all four years of college on the current campus, occupied at the time by the Manor Vail.
When he graduated from high school, his perceived options were to go to work at a mill or enter the service. At the time, two gentlemen from town were attending LTC and suggested Colby and his friends consider enrolling. The tuition remission program in effect at the time made it a very easy choice.
As a student at Lyndon, Colby participated in one season of cross country and four years of both basketball and baseball. If you ask his long-time friend and teammate Grant "Bucky" Isham '55, baseball was where he really stood out. He was frequently referred to as the mainstay of the pitching staff. During his baseball career, The Caledonian Record referred to him as the "right-handed ace," with "fine hurling" abilities. Bucky shares that in both high school and college Colby's "knuckle drop" was very hard to hit.
After graduation, he began his teaching career in Newport Center where he taught junior high math and science for two years. From there, Colby went on to Plainfield (now Twinfield) where he taught and math and science, and coached boys' varsity basketball, baseball, and soccer.
In 1959, Colby's boys' basketball team went undefeated and won the Class C championship. The following year, his team was also undefeated, but lost in the tournament. During these two seasons his team put together a string of 36 consecutive wins.
In time, he ended up in Hartford, Vt., to continue teaching middle school. Colby coached freshmen basketball, started a junior high baseball program, and coached girl's junior varsity and varsity softball. He retired from Hartford after teaching 39 years.
D now lives in White River Junction, Vt. with his wife, Marilyn.
