School headmaster announces retirement

David Dike has led Canterbury School of Florida for four years and is leaving to spend more time with his family.

By LENNIE BENNETT

© St. Petersburg Times, published February 4, 2001

ST. PETERSBURG -- David Dike, headmaster of Canterbury School of Florida, has announced he will retire at the end of the school year. A letter was sent to parents last week notifying them of his decision.

Dike, 62, said: "I think we're supposed to retire after a certain point. I think it's time to spend time with my own family rather than other people's families."

Canterbury is an "independent" or private school with 460 students in prekindergarten through 12th grade and two campuses. Dike has led Canterbury for four years. During his tenure, enrollment reached capacity and the school has embarked on a $4.25-million expansion that will add an arts center and classrooms. He said he is in good health and that was not an issue in his decision.

"Most of what I was supposed to do has been done," he said. "Voluntary giving is at an all-time high. We have a strategic plan in place."

School representative Daryl DeBerry said the search for a new school leader will begin soon.

Dike has been involved in education all his life. He was raised on the campus of Metairie Park Country Day School in Louisiana, where both of his parents taught. He began his own career as a teacher there after graduating from Louisiana Polytechnic Institute with a degree in science.

He taught and led several departments at Norfolk Academy in Virginia, founded in 1728 and one of the country's oldest continuing schools. Dike was headmaster for 12 years at Harding Academy in Nashville, Tenn.

He was on sabbatical in Colorado in 1996 when a friend called to say he should look into Canterbury, which was searching for a new headmaster.

He came for an interview "and was struck by the fact that it had such a big heart."

He and his wife, Carolyn, have been married for 30 years. They have three sons, one a naval aviator stationed in Pensacola, one a student at the University of Alabama and one who works in construction here.

No decision has been made about moving, but he said it is likely.

"We have property in the Panhandle, Mississippi and Virginia. We would probably end up in the Pensacola area, although our one grandchild is here and it will be difficult to get my wife to leave."

In retirement, Dike will have much to occupy his time. He is a master carpenter who crafts period furniture using a collection of antique tools and Colonial carpentry techniques.

He wants to return to photography, which was a brief, early career.

"I still have an insatiable desire to get behind the camera," he said. "And I love to fish."

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