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Grateful for the Opportunity, 1898 Alumnus Gave Back
约翰。G. Johannesen, 1898届毕业生, who was born in the little town of Grimstad, 挪威, in 1881 and orphaned in Baltimore at the age of nine, 读起来像小说. Well-documented in a comprehensive 31-page 80th birthday tribute entitled “This is Your Life—John J.——珍妮特·吉布斯, 这是一个戏剧性的故事, 困难, and devotion to the institutions that played a critical role in his upbringing.
Johannesen immigrated to Baltimore with his parents and two younger brothers in 1890 after his father, 船长, accepted a job with a local steamship company. 可悲的是, 在他最后一次航行中, Captain Johannesen and his crew were lost at sea, 不久之后, 他的妻子悲痛欲绝. 没有家人收留他们, John and his brothers were sent to live at the General German Orphan Asylum on Aisquith Street.
Several years later, Johannesen was encouraged to take McDonogh’s entrance exam. Based on his academic record and financial need, 他被判入狱一年, renewable scholarship and became student #611. 在第一年, Johannesen, who primarily spoke both Norwegian and German, was awarded a copy of Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary, given annually to the student who showed the greatest improvement in English.
Always one of the top 10 students in his class, a biographical sketch from McDonogh’s 校友 Association notes that Johannesen was not a “grind.“被描述为维京人, 用“北欧海王的血,” he was a good swimmer and played center on the varsity football team. He introduced skiing to McDonogh and even made his own skis from wood that he found on campus. In addition to his studies and traditional chores, 他担任学校的理发师, and he earned spending money by collecting walnuts and trapping and selling rabbits and muskrats that were “prepared in the school kitchen for good eating!”
毕业后, 那就叫光荣退役,麦克唐纳6月6日说, 1898, Johannesen became a stenographer for an oyster and fruit packing company, and later for the Pearl Hominy Company. In 1904, 他婚礼的第二天, the Great Baltimore Fire broke out destroying the company and eliminating his job. Using his connections, he landed a position as a clerk for the Southern Electric Company. Tragedy struck again when his wife died after giving birth to a daughter, who also did not survive (He later remarried and raised three children.). Johannesen’s 护理er in the electric industry took off, 1946年，他退休了, he was Vice President of the New York and Newark Districts of the General Electric Supply Corporation. 一直以来, Johannesen remained in close contact with the two institutions that were his salvation. 他对安全的感激, 护理, and guidance he received at the orphanage and McDonogh molded him into a man of character and inspired him to do the same for others.
He served the General German Orphan’s Home (renamed in 1924, and later named The Children’s Home) in various capacities for more than 58 years as Director, 董事局主席, 并多次担任总统, 包括, 1962年他去世时. “To it he gave the last full measure of devotion,” states a postscript to “This is Your Life—John J.”
Johannesen’s loyalty to McDonogh is documented in a series of scrapbook clippings and copies of correspondence with Headmasters Duncan Campbell Lyle and Robert “Bob” Lamborn ’35. Keenly aware of the importance of an endowment to help students like himself, he encouraged others to support the school. According to one clipping about McDonogh’s 校友 Day exercises on July 4, 1919, where he served as the orator of the day, 他对麦克唐纳的精彩致敬, 致她的创始人, and to the men who have guided the work of the school since its doors were opened 46 years ago, 被同情的人听到. His acknowledgment of what McDonogh had meant to him and his earnest plea for a larger endowment for the school made a profound impression.”
四十年后, Johannesen was still fundraising for McDonogh as an active member of a fledgling group that initiated the Annual 给 Fund. In 1961, friends in the 校友 Association noted, “他的法律顾问, his active participation in fundraising, and his personal contributions were instrumental in forming a group that now includes some 400 McDonogh alumni who, 在过去一年中, 捐了20多美元,为了学校的发展.”
Speaking at Johannesen’s memorial service the following year, Lamborn recalled meeting him as a boy and being impressed by his “bigness.他说:“大手。. 大的控制. 灿烂的微笑. 大的声音. Waves of strength and goodwill and interest and support rolled out from him at that first meeting and at every other meeting I had with him through many years. He was strong in an era that demanded strength. Our institutions—The Home and The School—have profited from that strength—so have we as individuals.”
Lamborn’s words were echoed by Gibbs, 谁写的, “简而言之, it is safe to say that every life that has been touched by this man’s influence has become better because of it.”
Published in the summer 2019 issue of McDonogh杂志.