My Education

[Today, I begin the transcription of my dad’s account of his education, from first grade on through his adult years. —LS]

I suppose that I can more or less logically divide my formal education into four chronological parts. The first part of course would be the twelve years I spent in the Gowrie Consolidated school, progressing first through the six elementary grades, then the two years in junior high and finishing up with four years of high school. The second section would be the two years I attended junior college in Fort Dodge, followed by the third at the University of Iowa where I spent two school years plus a summer vacation. The fourth is a less well defined period that comprised the years I worked for Shell in San Francisco or Emeryville, during which I took a number of evening classes at UCB [University of California at Berkeley] (all related to chemical engineering) and several company-sponsored classes, mostly on the premises of the Shell installation in Emeryville. An addendum to this fourth section might be the courses I’ve taken at the college here [Southern Oregon University], both for credit and audited only.

Thinking back at these four intervals my impression is that I enjoyed the two junior college years the most, perhaps because of the contacts I had during my attendance with congenial friends. Of the two years I spent at Fort Dodge Junior College the second year evokes the most favorable response in me. I had no immediate goal in mind and was simply using the opportunity to take some classes that might have some value later on should I end up in some four-year engineering curriculum. The first year at the junior college was essentially a full year of engineering credits, the second only very partly so.

Perhaps the second most enjoyable period was the second year at Iowa and the following summer session. Not only had the reaction to being away from the familiar home environment for the first extended time in my life passed, but I had a part-time job at the University power plant that made my financial picture rosier. But I should add that all my school years were generally happy ones with only occasional times of emotional discontent.

Note: Prior to the formation of the Gowrie Consolidated school district the school in Gowrie was housed in a brick, two-story building located on the south side of the main street in the town, about a block and a half east of the city park. In a way it was simply a smaller addition to the newer building that replaced it after the consolidation. It lacked I think a gymnasium. After its use for an educational purpose stopped the building was converted into apartments and known as the Beckwith apartments, after the main who did the conversion. I have a vague mental impression of the man. I don’t think I was ever in the building but I’m not totally sure of this — when I followed Harris Magnusson on his paper delivery route I may have entered the building with him.

My Aunt Laurine was born in 1904, so she would have been 12 or so when the family moved into the house in town in about 1916 or 1917 after my grandfather’s death. I suspect she might have had some of her school years, principally high school, in the old school building.