alumni spot
John J. Harrison
BY KELLEY M. ARNOLD
DIRECTOR OF NEWS AND PUBLIC INFORMATION
John J. Harrison (HS diploma ’26), believed to be the oldest
living BPC alumnus, will have just celebrated his 99th birthday at
the publication of this edition of The LAMP. Harrison was born
Nov. 1, 1908 in Davisboro, Ga.
Harrison’s calm yet playful personality reveals a penchant for
storytelling – and tell he did during a two-hour visit with Alumni
Relations Director Shannon Hinely Bull, then-Vice President for
College Advancement Pamela Davis and Director of News and
Public Information Kelley M. Arnold July 26, 2007, at his
residence in Macon.
Many things have changed since BPC was called Brewton-
Parker Institute (BPI) and it educated high schoolers, grades
Director of Alumni Relations Shannon Hinely Bull presents John J. Harrison (HS diploma
eight through 11. For instance, Harrison remembers when the
’26) with some BPC memorabilia. Harrison is believed to be the oldest living BPC alum.
(Photo by Kelley M. Arnold)
only car on the campus was then-president Albert Martin Gates’
Model T Ford coupe, “and now you can’t even find a parking
dormitory. Denton Hall no longer stands; it was destroyed by fire
spot,” he quips.
Feb. 12, 1969
1
.
Back in 1920’s south Georgia, the roads were dirt and cars were
If the students wanted to leave campus – something Harrison said
a luxury. Getting from his home in Scott, located 16 miles from
was one of the things they did for fun – they had to get permission
Dublin, near Swainsboro on what is now Route 80, to anywhere
from their professors to “walk into Mount Vernon”.
outside of walking distance meant “catching a ride.”
“In those days, towns like that would usually have at least two
In fact, it was one of these journeys which brought the 15-year-
department stores and maybe three or four grocery stores.
old Harrison in contact with BPC in the first place.
Nowadays you do good to find one of those self-filling stations. They
are all closed up,” reminisces Harrison.
“The reason I went (to Brewton-Parker) was the year before I
came, I lived on the other side of Dublin and we had been to
Today most students travel to Vidalia, Dublin, Macon or Savannah
Macon at the fair and the rain had came. Back in those days we
by car for fun off campus – in their own cars. The curfew and
didn’t have paved roads so we tried to come back home on foot.
requirements of “room check” were also a bit more stringent in
It started to hail and we couldn’t make it. We stopped at a farm
1926. “The professors had a master key to the rooms. They could
and they put us up for the night in their barn. It was A.M. Gates’
go in there at any time. We were expected to keep our rooms
farm,” explains Harrison. “And one year later, he came through
clean,” explains Harrison. “You were not supposed to be up past 10
town. He was going around different places in the summer time,
o’clock, and if you were behind on something, you’d go into the
getting up people to go to Brewton-Parker and he remembered
bathroom and you’d have the light to read. They’d punish you
us.”
though if they caught you.”
Harrison describes Gates “as a prominent farmer, a very
Not much of a troublemaker himself though, he was likely one of the
educated man. He had a big farm out from Jeffersonville.” He
brightest students in his class. He remembers grading his Spanish
remembers President Gates would lead chapel (“a slight talk and
classes’ final graduation test because “something came up and the
a prayer”) at breakfast each morning in the campus dining hall.
professor had to leave early. He’d only graded two and he knew
how good I was at Spanish so he handed me the rest of them –
Classes were taught in one room and one professor taught two
about 25 or 30 -- and I graded them.”
subjects back-to-back. Both boys and girls shared the roll calls
during class but, like today at BPC, males and females lived in
The top-floor auditorium in the main building, now known as Gates
separate dormitories on campus. His professors, “Mr. Martin”
Hall, was the site of graduation. “We wore ordinary clothes,”
(Ralph A. Martin, chemistry and mathematics) and “Mr. Wallace”
explains Harrison. “Someone made a speech and then someone
(John Vernon Wallace, Spanish and history) even lived across
handed out diplomas.”
the hall from Harrison on the same floor of the three-story boy’s
14 THE LAMP FALL 2007
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