UNC

Wesley Johnson

 

This year, Wesley Johnson, a 1935 graduate of the Colorado State College of Education, turned 100 years old. His family celebrated with him, of course, and he took a day off from his daily exercise routine. The century-old Dr. Johnson still exercises and walks daily, although he has to use a walker now.

Over the phone, he recalls the campus he loved, and his school and band. Many of Johnson’s memories are tied to UNC, although he knew it in the 1930s, when it was the Colorado State College of Education. In those days, all the buildings were located around what is now referred to as central campus.

He remembers the campus fondly. “When I was in 7th grade, in the summer,” Johnson says, “I was the water boy for the men who built Gunter Hall. I carried the water buckets for them to drink, and they paid me 50 cents a day.”

During his years on campus, he spent most of his time in the music department, which was housed in the president’s home at the time. (A new president’s home was built on 10th Avenue at the southwest corner of the old campus. It now houses the UNC Visitor’s Center.) The old president’s house would later be replaced by Frasier Hall.

Cranford Hall, the oldest building on campus at the time, was the administration building. It was demolished in 1979; next to Cranford was the library, which has also been rebuilt, and then came Kepner Hall, which was the lab school for the college at the time. It now houses the Monfort College of Business.

The Home Economics Building along 8th Avenue had its named changed to Crabbe Hall the year Johnson was a freshman.

Johnson grew up in Greeley, coming here with his family when he was in the fifth grade. He went to Greeley High School, and remembers he failed geometry, and had to take it again before he could graduate. In that second geometry class, he met a sophomore girl named Ingrid Irene. They were friends for several years before falling in love. They married five years after he graduated from high school.

After graduating from Greeley High School in 1931, Johnson received a scholarship to CSCE. “We were in the middle of the Great Depression in those days,” Johnson said in a telephone interview from his home in Arizona. “I decided that I’d become a teacher because there were job openings. In those days a steady job and a steady payroll were needed. Teaching didn’t pay much, but it was steady.”

To earn money to pay his college tuition in later years, Johnson joined the National Guard. Its pay would help to pay off the tuition, then $25 per quarter. He also formed his own 9-man orchestra to play the big band songs for parties on campus, and to make a little extra money.

The band was busy then, with parties at sororities and fraternities and at the college. They were paid $4 per orchestra member for each party. Johnson was the band leader and played the upright string base. One of his band members was Herb Miller of Fort Morgan – a college student in Greeley and brother of famed orchestra big band Glenn Miller.

One of Johnson’s best memories at the college was the day CSCE beat the University of Colorado in football. Johnson was playing in the college band in the stands at Jackson Field that day. He said that after that loss, CU made sure CSCE was out of its league, so it wouldn’t have to risk a loss to a smaller college again.

But on the day of that big game, Johnson was very busy. “We played in the stands,” he said, “and celebrated when the game was over, then we ran home to change into our tuxedoes so we could play for a fraternity party right after the game. It was a crazy day.”

Johnson graduated with a degree in education in 1935 and taught in Grand Junction and then Wray, Colo. He finally moved to Denver and taught there for the rest of his career. In order to supplement his teaching income, Johnson began playing with various big bands on the weekends. One of them was led by his friend, Herb Miller.

Then, in 1941, the world changed. World War II started, and in 1943 Johnson was drafted into the Army. He was placed in the Army Engineers Department, and landed on Omaha Beach five days after D-Day. “I was attached to Gen. Bradley’s Headquarters and we moved to the front as the war progressed,” Johnson said. “We were in Wiesbaden, Germany when the Battle of the Bulge started, and we stayed in Germany when that battle – and the war itself – ended.”

He then returned to teaching in Denver.

After about 17 years of teaching music in Denver schools, Johnson became an administrator in the Denver School District, and was the principal at Denver West High School, with 2,500 students and about 100 teachers on staff. “My career was about half teaching and half administration,” Johnson said. “I enjoyed them both.”

In the early 1970s, Johnson tried to retire several times but was called back for special duty: a new federal program in Denver was launched to recruit more minority administrators, and Johnson was called out of retirement three times to train the new principals.

He finally retired for good in 1975, and he and his wife had a home in Estes Park in the summer and in Arizona in the winter. The couple had two sons – one is a concert pianist in New York, the other an insurance agent in Florida.

His wife is gone now –“We were married 62 years before I lost her,” Johnson said. “We had a good life together.”

Even at 100, Johnson’s memories of his college life in Greeley are strong. “I remember it as a great college that started my career in life. I’ll always appreciate that.” NV

 

Social

UNC Social
Connect with UNC on our social networking sites.

unco.edu/social/