Michael Howard Strong

1947 - 2024

Michael Howard Strong

November 21, 1947 - February 3, 2024

Kansas City, Missouri - Michael Howard Strong, Kansas City, MO, passed away at 6:42pm on Saturday, February 3, 2024, at the Kansas City VA Medical Center after a sudden bout with Leukemia (AML). Memorial services are to be held Saturday, April 27th, 4-6pm, at St. Mark's Church, 38th & Troost, KCMO, with an informal gathering on Sunday, April 28th, 3-5pm, at Walter's Dance Center, on State Avenue, KCK.

Mike Strong was a professional educator, photographer, videographer, programmer, writer, and radio reporter.

Mike Strong was born November 21st, 1947 in Norfolk, Nebraska to Mary Eileen Devine and Howard John Strong. He grew up in Columbus, Nebraska, and graduated from St. Bonaventure High School in 1966 with Honors and was a National Merit Scholar. He worked at Gloor's Bakery, and in the family business, Midwest Glass, and later worked at K-TTT radio station. He loved aircraft, and was active in the Civil Air Patrol, before serving in the US Air Force from 1968-1972.

Mike was a astronomic and geodetic surveyor and "computer" in the Air Force (1968-1972), as well as a newspaper and radio reporter (in Nebraska and upstate New York before and after the Air Force - KTTT, WMBO/WRLX, WGVA, Geneva Times), and later finished his degree in Journalism from the University of Kansas.

He taught Web programming and video editing at UMKC in the Computer Science Program and in the Program for Adult College Education (PACE) for almost two decades. For the last five years, he was a major contributor to High Plains Public Radio (HPPR) and the Radio Reader's Book Club (BookBytes).

Mike Strong was well-known in the Kansas City dance communities for his dance photography and videography, and his online publication covering the Kansas City dance scene, www.KCDance.com.

In 1994, he took up ballroom dance, his photography (and video) increasingly focused on dance and dance-related content. He felt that his own dancing (especially tap) fed directly into his camera, informing each photo and each video with the knowledge of when and what to shoot, becoming accumulated subject knowledge. He followed all forms of dance, and hoped to educate the public on the importance of dance, the arts, and their significance integrated within our daily lives, and recognized dance as embodied learning, i.e., an open laboratory of learning-theory.

Some of Mike Strong's dance-related clients included City in Motion, Kansas City Ballet, Fringe Festival, UMKC Conservatory Dance Division, Wylliams-Henry Dance, Friends of Alvin Ailey, Traditional Music Society, Soundz of Africa, KCK Tamburitzans, New Dance Partners, American Youth Ballet, and Raghsidad, among others. He also produced the cable television series, Dance On!, for Billie Mahoney, shot at the Bolender Center (in the KC Ballet building). Mike Strong's photos often appeared in the KC Star and he frequently did video-work for local and regional projects. He also won a number of awards for his photographic work.

Mike Strong was preceded in death by his mother, Mary Eileen Dahlkoetter, and his step-father, Don Dahlkoetter, who raised him. He is survived by his brother and sister-in-law, Joe and Bev Dahlkoetter, and his nephew Casey, of Grand Island, NE, and by his partner of 25 years, Nicole English, of Kansas City, Assistant Professor at FHSU.

Related Websites:

https://www.kcdance.com (Dance in the Kansas City area)

https://www.mikestrongphoto.com (Photo galleries)

http://artfuldancer.com/

http://www.mikestrongphoto.com/CV_Galleries/HPPR/MikeStrong_Bio.htm

https://www.hppr.org/post/mike-strong-radio-reader-book-leader

https://www.hppr.org/2024-02-05/a-sad-goodbye-to-a-good-friend