Roscoe Wesley Johnson

R. Wesley "Wes" Johnson, Feb. 13, 1914 - Oct. 5, 2017.Roscoe Wesley Johnson died October 5, 2017, singing favorite jazz standards and reminiscing until his final hours with family and the devoted care-team at Heritage-Palmeras in Sun City, AZ.Born in 1914 into a working-class family in Ewing, MO, he was named after his father, who abandoned him at a very young age. For the rest of his life, he avoided using his first name and instead went by "Wes" or R. Wesley. At about age 10, Wes collected cardboard boxes he found in alleys in Greeley, CO, shined shoes, and drove around in a miniature demo-car to help support himself and his mom. From this inauspicious beginning, he managed to work his way through Colorado State College during the Great Depression and became a band and orchestra teacher at Fruitvale, Wray, and Denver, CO, where his students won many contests and awards. Along the way he achieved both Master's and Doctoral degrees.Music proved to be his abiding interest, beginning with a Horner harmonica he inherited from his older brother Wilton and mastered enough to get the attention of the school band teacher. About the same time he fell in love with band music while "chaperoning" his older sister Frances so she could go to local dances. He fell for his life-long sweetheart Ingrid Irene Romberger at a Big Band dance in Greeley and later became good friends with Glenn Miller's siblings Dean, a colleague at the Wray school; Irene, a long-time neighbor in Estes Park; and Herb, who played in Wes's band. One of his strongest influences, though, was Henry Trustman Ginsberg, concertmaster of the Denver Symphony, who taught some classes in Greeley and took a special interest in Wes.Wes served in the Army during World War II, achieved the rank of sergeant and eventually went into Normandy with the second wave (Army engineers) at Omaha Beach, receiving a battlefield promotion to lieutenant at the time of the Battle of the Bulge in 1944. Before heading home, he helped to establish a school in Wiesbaden, Germany, for 500 soldiers about to return to civilian life.After the war, Wes returned to Denver where he raised two sons and was promoted through the ranks of assistant principal and then principal at Lake Junior High, Jefferson, and Hamilton high schools. In the early seventies, West High School in Denver was experiencing racial turmoil and had gone through five principals in three years when they appointed Wes. His leadership united a divided faculty and a diverse student body, and he remained principal there until his retirement many years later. Wes moved to Sun City, AZ around 1975 and lived there for 42 years. Wes was called out of retirement to serve the Rockefeller Foundation, training minority faculty to be school administrators. He also took on a number of leadership positions with churches and service organizations, including President of the Sun City Lion's Club, and directed the choirs at Emmanuel Methodist in Denver and Willowbrook Methodist in Sun City, AZ. Scouting inspired him as a fatherless child, and he achieved the Eagle badge, then later mentored his own son Kit and five of his friends to the same level. By the time his father had reached his late nineties and needed care, Wes had reconciled rather than abandoning him. Looking back on his 103 years, he summed up his teaching and service life ambitions by stating, "I tried to make a difference."Ingrid died in 1998. He is survived by his two sons, Keith Wesley (Kit) and Timothy William, his grandsons Munro Wesley and Benjamin Brock, great-grandchildren Brock Wesley and Audrey Jane, daughter-in-law Jane McPhetres, and granddaughter-in-law Sarah Lumnah. His niece Norma Bartel and husband Al have been his devoted companions during his long retirement years in Sun City, AZ.