Before arriving as a graduate student to Iowa in 1981, Dale Herbeck enjoyed a successful career debating at Augustana College, Illinois. He qualified for the NDT twice and reached the octo-finals during his senior year debating with John Bart. He was coached by the legendary, Ken Strange.
Dale enjoyed a remarkable career as a debate coach at Iowa from 1981 to 1985. He qualified teams to the NDT in 4 of those 5 years. In 1985, he coached Karla Leeper and Robert Garman to a first round at large bid and to a second place finish at the NDT.
Almost every day, Dale and I ate at the same restaurant in downtown Iowa City, The Burger Palace, which tragically, no longer exists. We both ordered the same meal and the servers would yell out our order before we reached the counter.
In the fall of 1985, Dale was hired as the Director of Debate at Boston College. He resurrected a floundering debate program. The program had been doing only individual events when he took over with a $9000.00 budget. Dale qualified teams to the NDT every year from 1987 to 1994. Michael Janas, another Iowa alumn, was the first of Dale’s team to qualify to the NDT.
Dale retired as the Director in 1994 and served as the Department Chair for many years. In 2012, he left BC and became the Department Chair at Northeastern.
Dale was a prolific scholar in the fields of argumentation and free speech. He served as the editor of Argumentation and Advocacy and the Free Speech Year Book.
His most lasting contribution to debate scholarship is that he invented the permutation, which remains the go to affirmative response to refute a negative counterplan.
Dale published dozens of peer-reviewed articles in the fields of free speech and communication Law. His textbook, Freedom of Speech in The United States, co-authored with Thomas Tedford, is the leading teaching material on free speech.
Along with being a scholar, Dale was an exceptional teacher. He received numerous teaching awards from Phi Betta Kappa and NCA.
Dale also provided incredible service to the AFA. He served as President, the Chair of the Finance Committee and wrote countless letters of support for debate coaches to receive tenure and promotion. Even after retiring from debate, Dale served on the NDT alumni committee and formatted our newsletter for the past 5 years.
Dale was my best friend. We attended 40 NCA conventions together, played golf on a regular basis, and attended numerous sporting events.
Next November, NCA will be having a panel to celebrate his remarkable career.
Best regards to everyone,
John Katsulas