It has been nearly fifty years since I (Allan Johnson) graduated from Brandon College with an Arts degree in English Literature. At that time, students graduating from University had little difficulty in finding jobs and establishing long term careers. The difficulty lay in making the choice among positions available. My father's cousin, who was a professor at Brandon College, suggested that I teach school for a year, before deciding on a life-time career.
So it was that I fell into the position of Principal and Teacher of the Sciences at Stonewall Collegiate and Public School in the fall of 1956. I was twenty years old and so were many of my students. Although I was interviewed and hired by the Board of Trustees, I am sure that it was the Honourable Robert "Bobby" Bend, who selected me for the position. Bob Bend and the school inspector, William Friesen, were to be my mentors for the year and in fact for some years after as well.
The experience at Stonewall contributed greatly to my decision to return to the University of Manitoba in the fall of 1957 to enrol in the Faculty of Education, from which I graduated with the B. Paed. degree in 1958. I was then a qualified and certified teacher and would spend the rest of my career in various positions and jobs in Education.
I retired in 1997 and moved to Aylmer, Quebec (near Ottawa), where my wife is the President and CEO of the Canadian Museum of Nature. Recently, as I browsed through some boxes of stored materials, I came across the Stonewall Collegiate Institute yearbook (1956-57). What a joy it was to look at the photos and read the various pieces that had been written nearly fifty years ago. The memories flooded back as I examined each individual photo and read such items as the "Class History", the "Class Prophecy", the "Valedictory Address", and the essays by students from all grades. For each one I can visualize the characteristics, activities, events and the fellowship we shared with each other. We were a small group (four teachers and 132 students) and we behaved as a family. It was my first school and I can truly say that in the years since, no other group was ever more interesting and fun to be with.
In the event that some of you (the students of 1956-57) do not have a copy of the yearbook, I decided to create this web-site. It contains most of the information that was in the yearbook. I am hoping that some of you will find this site and will decide to share with me and others the story of your life. Where are you now, and what have you been doing over the past fifty years? I have written a brief summary of my life since 1957, and hope it might serve as an example for others to do the same and send it to me to be included on this web-site as we celebrate our 50th anniversary in 2007.
You may contact me as follows:
Allan Johnson
Address: 21, chemin Castelbeau
Gatineau, QC J9J 1C9
Telephone: 1-819-685-3070
E-mail: Allan Johnson