Johnny Aguire

Johnny Aguire was a memorable student in Dad's career. As I will post many of Dad's memories of this young "entrepreneur," a little background information may be helpful.

photo credit: Ely Mock

Johnny was in the 4th grade, Miss Mary Bell Offutt’s room when I went to Bessemer as a new principal in 1953. He lived with his mother who was quite old and his sister who was 12 years older than he was. He was very small for his age, a very wiry little guy with big brown eyes and he was very likeable. He got along well with the other children and with the teachers, except that he was often truant.

The biggest problem he had was his stealing. He was smart enough not to steal at school, though. In fact, the kids at school were often the ones who benefited from his shoplifting. He always had plenty of pencils, pens, paper, etc – enough to share with his friends!

His other major problem was that he would wander all over town and would stay out all night on many occasions.

During the summer of 1954 his caseworker had him placed in “Byers Home for Boys” in Byers, Colorado, near Denver. I had a letter from him telling me about being on the swim team there. The next I heard of him was that he was traveling with a carnival. Then I heard that he was in prison.

On September 25, 1996 I was at the opening of Bessemer’s new media center and met Johnny’s sister. She was there with her daughter, as she now had a granddaughter at Bessemer School. We reminisced about the many days we spent looking for Johnny or dealing with the problems he created. Their mother was older and did not speak English.

Johnny is in his middle 50’s now [1996] and has lived a very hard life. He can see very little and hear very little and his sister said he looks older than I do. He has three sons.