Editors Note
Summer 2004

(This is a letter received in response to last fall's article about the passing of friend and alum Wilbur Swenson)

"Your Aurora Borealis, Fall 2003 tribute to Wilbur Swensen, '40, and his unexpected passing brought back many year's memory of my first, and later, lifetime contacts with Wilbur.

I had been selected in the spring of 1938 to attend High School Week on the campus of MSC in Bozeman to compete with fellow students in my knowledge of American History. Evidently I had taken an earlier exam to qualify. My Bainville Superintendent, Mr. Roberston, had arranged for me to ride with the Flaxville contingent for the "38" event. Wilbur's dad had donated his family's auto for the long trip to Bozeman. This is when I became acquainted with Wilbur and this friendship continued until his death.

Wilbur was a senior at Flaxville High at that time and I was a junior. I must have made a mental note when I later heard that Wilbur was attending NMC that I should go there too. I had interrupted my future college plans with a stint in the U.S. sponsored CCC program and enrolled in NMC in 1940. By that time, Wilbur had graduated in the their regular two-year program. He was taking courses in the newly instituted three-year teaching program that would qualify for a teaching certificate.

When he learned that I was attending, he became, literally, "my Godfather" in getting me to meld into college life. I will never forget his "going out of the way" to introduce me to fellow students and faculty. That was Wilbur."

Sincerely,

Ed Granley '42
Alexandria, VA

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