CHILPOLA JUNIOR COLLEGE

As junior at Wildwood High School, I was not sure I wanted to go to college to further my education. I was considering a future as a railroad agent and telegraph operator. Communications technology (two-way radio) was advancing. I wondered why they were not using radios on trains, between crew and stations and dispatchers.

I assumed at some point I would decide to go to college. Chipola Junior College was not on my radar. I assumed, if I went to college, I would attend the State of Florida’s big engineering school 60 miles north of home in Gainesville, Florida: THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA. That’s where Wildwood boys went, learned to party, and flunked out. Academic competition was not a Wildwood High School concept. We were smart and we knew it. Studying long and hard, making passing grades against top students from high schools with the top academic programs in the State of Florida were not part of our up-bringing. We, of course, had some outstanding teachers at Wildwood. They did not stay long – they moved on to bigger schools to get better pay in more desirable cities around the state and the country. Wildwood students were often first-in-the-family to attend college. I was first to have that opportunity in my family. We were at something of a disadvantage when we boys moved into the dorms at the University of Florida in Gainesville, or Florida State University in Tallahassee for girls. Football, parties, drinking, dating, cars…too many distractions…plus the academic rigor.

Albert S. Johnson and the Science fair changed the outlook for me. Mr. Johnson saw my science fair project in Gainesville in the spring of 1956, my senior year at Wildwood High. He was Chipola Junior Colleges’ physics and science teacher. I was offered a full science scholarship to Chipola for two years, to get my Associate of Arts degree in Engineering. The offer included, if my grades remained satisfactory, a transfer to the University of Florida. That was an offer I couldn’t turn down – tuition, room, meal ticket in the cafeteria, books – all the same benefits the boys on coveted basketball scholarships received. All we had to do was pass our classes and stay out of trouble. The small college in northwest Florida provided a two-year transition to the huge impersonal state university. That transition probably saved my college career. I thrived at Chipola, probably survived because of being there.

Here is a nice picture of me and my science fair project at the State Science Fair held in Gainesville. I appeared in the brochure that was sent out about the fair the following year. And my roomie, Henry.

Henry Webster, the son of Hank, an amateur radio friend from Sebring (coincidentally), was offered the second Chipola scholarship. Henry and I became nerdy roomies. I was more social, Henry studied harder and longer. He had a motor scooter and rebuilt the engine in the kitchen of our dorm. Chipola’s dorms were converted from xxxx Air Force Base troop housing – a pleasant single-level apartment complex about seven miles from campus. The college ran a school bust to and from campus a couple of times a day.

Here is a picture of me outside our dorm apartment.

The Marianna Army Air Base was used as the Chipola dormitories while I was there.Mr. Johnson and some other faculty lived there, as well. I had a long-standing joke on Henry about Mr. Johnson’s high school daughter, Sharon, coming to our unit and calling: “Henreeee”, to invite him to the Freshman class Tweep Dance. The joke was on me, however. She came calling “Billlll”, instead. Here is our picture from the Twerp Dance.

[PICTURE OF SHARON JOHNSON AND BILL AT DANCE]

LIFE AND FRIENDS AT CHIPOLA

Here are some pictures taken during my two years at Chipola.

I dated several Chipola girls during my two years in Marianna. Kay Bourquardez and I spent a lot of time together. I spent some weekends in Tallahassee with Kay and her parents. Here are Kay and I at a Christmas dance or party the winter of 1957.

CHIPOLA COLLEGE TODAY

Here is a link to the CJC website giving a bit of its history: ABOUT CHIPOLA COLLEGE.