When I interviewed George Anderson and he asked me how old I thought he was, I guessed 78. He was 88. He has had a varied and interesting life for a fellow born in small town, Iowa, the son of a minister who could preach only in Swedish. As much as he didn't like his high school experience, he got himself a college education and became a teacher, a school principal, and more. He tells us his story. My thanks to Ione Jensen and the Douglas County Historical Society for this transcription.
Vagabond: You graduated in 1936, so you worked in Alexandria's schools for 15 years?
George: You didn’t count the time I was in school did you?
Vagabond: Oh that’s right. So how old were you when you resigned from being principal? And you were principal for how long?
George: Twenty-five years in all. So then we went to Malaysia on the island of Borneo. I was the principal of a school there with 400 kids. They were all Chinese or Malaysian. I lived there for one year. I should have been there for two years but they had hired a high school teacher from a Minneapolis school, a music teacher. They tried him for one year. Then they asked me again. The morale at the school had been just terrible. So I was just there for one year.
Vagabond: Did you improve things in that year?
George: Oh yes, you bet. They’d had a teacher who would lecture to the kids. A biology teacher who would lecture to the kids. They wouldn’t do very well. So I’d have them work on worksheets. Then an English teacher did the same thing. Then the math teacher, there must have been 12-13 teachers in the school. But the younger kids in class just were bedlam, so I had to teach one course called Christianity, something like that. The whole system was under a British system. So they would take British exams. So I’d give a practice test to the kids. One kid who was really smart, I had him help me teach. I knew he was a smart kid, half Malaysian and half Chinese. So before we left, I said I should take you over to the states and put you through college. He managed to come over; he came from very poor circumstances. So I put this kid through four years of college. Then he wanted a more advanced degree and you know over there they wouldn’t even recognize the University of Minnesota. They come out of big schools there. But anyway I got him into a school at Edmonton, Canada.
Vagabond: The University of Calgary at Edmonton?
George: Yes. So he got a more advanced degree in engineering there. I put him through all the way and during the summer he would work for us. He lived with us for seven years in that way. In Minneapolis my sister housed him for nothing. Then he’d work and got his food. In Edmonton I don’t know how he did it, but he ended up buying a car for $694.
Vagabond: He had a job of some sort?
George: In engineering they design in school. Anyway, he went back to Malaysia, to his home there. Two or three years ago he became the head guy of the whole engineering department of that state, or country. He has several other people working for him. And recently he was given an honor, the highest honor you can be given as a civilian person in Malaysia. He must have been an awfully terrific guy to get that.
Vagabond: Over the years have you been in touch with the fellow from Malaysia whom you put through college?
George: He has two or three boys. Two of the boys are at the University in England.
To be continued....
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