A Benicia Graduate Celebrates her 75th Graduation Anniversary

Today the Class of 2011  will don their caps and gowns, recieve their diplomas and celebrate the end of mandatory education.  Their 1936 counterparts no doubt felt a similar elation at having completed this rite of passage.

For her part, Mary Johnson Savoie, who celebrates the 75th anniversary of her own matriculation this year, feels that the Benicia school district did her justice.

Having lived in Benicia for her entire life up til the momentous occasion of her own graduation from Benicia High, Johnson says of her childhood studies, "I can tell I had a good education...some young people I meet don't even know who the first president was. I know I learned that!"

Her education obviously served her well, taking her to the University of California, Berkeley after graduation.

At Cal, she would major in Chemistry with a minor in Math, going on to get the first of the 25 jobs she held  throughout her life time--"It must sound like I got fired a lot!"-- at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), known today as NASA.  Her first job title at NACA was "computer."

Of her time in high school, Johnson reminisces about things which might baffle current Benicia seniors.

"There was no football team, just a marching band," she says with a smile in her voice. And even the band would look considerably different than it does today. While the current band boasts around 100 students, Johnson's graduating class topped off at just 17, the same number of band members who are graduating with the Class of 2011.

Of course the population of Benicia has grown nine fold since 1936, when it lingered around 3,000 according to Johnson. Returning back to the Bay Area from her home in Lake Charles, Louisiana in years past, Johnson noted the most noticeable change was an explosion of residential development.

Now, Johnson looks to high school as a time when she made friends--and friendly rivalry.

"I was a good runner--second in my class to Helen Adams...we weren't good friends, but friendly to each other. And of course there was some competition there."

Johnson hopes to renew some of her high school acquaintances and is looking for contact information for her fellow 1936 graduates. Anyone with such information, please leave a note in the comment section.

With that, we congratulate all Benicia graduates, and encourage them to nurture the friendships made in high school, perhaps the most valuable tokens of that experience.