Donald Neal Thurber

1927 - 2020

(News story) LaSALLE, Mich. - Donald Neal Thurber, whose D'Nealian system of handwriting - developed as he watched primary graders grapple with traditional methods - won acceptance by schools worldwide, died Jan. 6 in IHM Sisters nursing facility, Monroe, where he lived nearly five years. He was 92.

He had developed complications from a stroke suffered in 2015, his family said.

Mr. Thurber, a career elementary educator, was teaching first grade in 1961 and examined what he regarded as the illogic of handwriting education.

"We were teaching the kids straight letters, then slanted," Mr. Thurber said in 1978. "They would have to learn small manuscript, capital manuscript, small cursive, and capital cursive letters.

"We were teaching conformity in writing, but writing is highly individualistic," Mr. Thurber said.

The hallmark of learning to print was a ball-and-stick method. Mr. Thurber found he could make letters in a rhythmic, continuous stroke. In his D'Nealian method, students shifted with ease from manuscript writing to cursive. The method aided students who were dyslexic or had special learning needs.

"They were seeing amazing changes in kids learning how to write," said daughter-in-law Diane Thurber.

D'Nealian Handwriting was first adopted by the Bedford schools and then other area districts. Mr. Thurber set up a table at education conferences. He knocked on publishers' doors and in time was signed to a leading name in educational texts. His system was used by big-city school districts and by Defense Department schools for soldiers' families.

"He had so many teachers writing to him, saying the kids wrote legibly and the transition was smooth," his daughter-in-law said.

He continued to innovate. In 1988, he promoted the D'Nealian Grip - a way to grasp rather than pinch a pencil and thereby eliminate finger fatigue and cramped hands. A decade later, he developed and patented a system of writing numerals.

Mr. Thurber retired in 1984 as principal of Chapman Elementary School in the Gibraltar, Mich., school. He started teaching primary grades in the district 25 years earlier. He began teaching elementary pupils in Luna Pier in 1953.

"He had some magical way of building up the confidence of each individual child who came in contact with him," his son Neal said.

Mr. Thurber served on the Monroe Board of Education for much of the 2000s. He and his wife moved to Grandview Beach on Lake Erie after they married. As more people lived year-round in the community, Mr. Thurber rallied neighbors to improve roads and utilities.

He was born Dec. 15, 1927, in Detroit to Eleanor and Horace Thurber, Jr. The family moved frequently because of his father's service in the Army. He lived with relatives in Toledo after his father's death and went to Scott High School.

A Navy veteran of World War II, he misstated his age in order to serve and was stationed in the Philippines. He returned and completed his education at Scott. He received a bachelor's degree from the University of Toledo and a master's degree from Eastern Michigan University.

Surviving are his wife, the former Mary Ann Fleischman, whom he married Aug. 22, 1953; daughters Annamae Pierce and Amy Thurber Smith; sons Neal, Matthew, Noel, and Samuel; sisters Sally Remy and Mary Ellen Black; 12 grandchildren, and nine great-grandchildren.

The family plans to hold a summer memorial. Arrangements are by Rupp Funeral Home, Monroe.

The family suggests tributes to the IHM Sisters in Monroe or the Monroe Salvation Army.

This is a news story by Mark Zaborney. Contact him at mzaborney@theblade.com or 419-724-6182.