Judge Praises J. W. Johnson At Memorial Life Story of First Campus President Told at Service Herbert S. Johnson, Son, Gives Response “The story of John W. Johnson is a story of strength and courage,” said Judge Lawrence T. Harris, ’93, in his address at the memorial ser vice yesterday afternoon. “In 1850 his family set out from Westport, Kansas, for Oregon. They travelled over the Oregon trail and the boy, then 14 years old, drove an ox team the entire distance. The family homestead now forms part of the O. A. C. campus. “But John W. Johnson had an in tense desire for an education, and a few years later he set out for Yale. He "travelled down the coast of California and Mexico, crossed the Isthmus of Panama and then went by boat to New York. When he arrived at Yale he found that he had not enough Latin or Greek. He often studied from ten to twelve hours a day. He was graduated in 1862, sixth in a class of 100. “He had planned to take up law, but as the rewards in that profession were slow in coming, he took up teaching to free himself from the debts incurred for his education. He was head of a Baptist school at McMinnville for some years, leav ing there to assume the duties of superintendent of schools in Port land. He organized the first high school in the northwest during this time and was acting principal there when called to the presidency of the University. For seventeen years he was president, and for five years after his resignation taught Latin and Greek. He had an innate sense of modesty. None of his family knew of his standing at Yale until after his death in 1898. “He kept account of all the stu dents’ goings and comings,” con tinued the speaker. “His aptness at learning where the students had been the night before was uncanny, and the student who had an im perfectly prepared lesson could be sure that the president knew why. “At one time the University was short of funds,” said Judge Harris, “but the president as well as the faculty served on with a twenty-five per cent reduction in their salaries. “However much the growth of this University may be, its stability is assured, for John W. Johnson laid a foundation deep enough to en dure any superstructure,” he con cluded. Then the audience adjourned while the memorial tablet on the front of the hall was unveiled by Dr. John Straub and Dr. Benjamin J. Hawthorne. In responding to Judge Harris’ address, Herbert S. Johnson, son of the president, said: “It is easy to speak of the sacrifice of men, and my father did sacrifice, but I wish to thank the speaker for mentioning my mother. She, too, was a piorser and her sacrifices were great. For the last ten years of her life she was a helpless in valid. My father’s first question on his return home was always: ‘Where is your mother?’ He never failed to seek her first. “The University was the begin ning, the middle, and the end of his life. He wanted us all to live for the University. He had a woodshed and nearby grew an apple orchard I was taken about once a week dur with many young switches. Here ing one period of my life. “My father and mother gave their lives for the University—it i was their dream that through it they could help attain the (thing for which the pioneers had come—a full er and a richer life. My father was a dreamer and if he were here to day he’d say, ‘Stand by the new ■c '•i■ v ’ vIV.. president, for he, too, has seen the vision and is in love—not with edu ' - i-"5T-“ r.Z - — ,-e •^ation.. ifselfrrjbVt; with ,'wjHat it"pr,o -*!anees,''and"-l£ei'w£ll‘!jcarry.''S)h‘11^iie Hroom-l'-S ha anT.rtli.aha h dream,'’"”' he concluded. ^v^i‘T-libVdeBD