Oral History Program Joseph Schwartz Interviewed by Sharice Stagler 21 July 2010 Oral History Program Weber State University Stewart Library Ogden, Utah Joseph Schwartz Interviewed by Sharice Stagler 21 July 2010 Copyright © 2025 by Weber State University, Stewart Library Mission Statement The Oral History Program of the Stewart Library was created to preserve the institutional history of Weber State University and the Davis, Ogden and Weber County communities. By conducting carefully researched, recorded, and transcribed interviews, the Oral History Program creates archival oral histories intended for the widest possible use. Interviews are conducted with the goal of eliciting from each participant a full and accurate account of events. The interviews are transcribed, edited for accuracy and clarity, and reviewed by the interviewees (as available), who are encouraged to augment or correct their spoken words. 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These oral history assignments were created to help Weber State students learn the value and importance of recording public history and to benefit the expansion of the Weber State oral history collections. ____________________________________ Oral history is a method of collecting historical information through recorded interviews between a narrator with firsthand knowledge of historically significant events and a well-informed interviewer, with the goal of preserving substantive additions to the historical record. Because it is primary material, oral history is not intended to present the final, verified, or complete narrative of events. It is a spoken account. It reflects personal opinion offered by the interviewee in response to questioning, and as such it is partisan, deeply involved, and irreplaceable. ____________________________________ Rights Management This work is the property of the Weber State University, Stewart Library Oral History Program. It may be used freely by individuals for research, teaching and personal use as long as this statement of availability is included in the text. It is recommended that this oral history be cited as follows: Schwartz, Joseph, an oral history by Sharice Stagler, 21 July 2010, WSU Stewart Library Oral History Program, University Archives, Stewart Library, Weber State University, Ogden, UT. iii Abstract: The following is an oral history interview with Joe Schwartz conducted by Sharice Stagler on July 21, 2010. Joe discusses his involvement in St. Joseph’s Catholic High School and its Booster Club. SS: This is an interview with Joe Schwartz. It is July 21, 2010, about 2:30 p.m. What has your involvement with the school been? How did it start? JS: Well, of course, I had five children, and I put five children through the St. Joseph school from grade one through 12. I was involved with the groups that would… Home and School, and let’s see, what was the one for the high school? Anyway, for the high school too. Through St. Joseph, I was in St. Joseph Parish at that time, and I belonged to the state school board for participating from St. Joseph. At that time, in one of the meetings, the bishop and Father Fitzgerald come in and says, “We’re going to close St. Joseph school,” because lack of funds, and it was about the same time that the Sisters was leaving the area. It was like [getting] hit in the head with a brick for me. I come home and I called a group together at my house and even some of the pastors and what have you of the different parishes, and we formed a group that would go down to the state school board and present. What we had done was gone out to get money, we all pledged money. It kind of got started through the Boosters Club, and we went out and talked to other people and got money pledged. Through the Sisters leaving, Paul Willard was teaching up there at that time, and so we talked Paul Willard in to be the principal, the coach, and also teach. He held that school together, I give him credit for more than anything for 1 keeping the school going. And we did keep it going. It was good. I don’t know what else to tell you. SS: Did you go to Catholic school when you were younger? JS: No, I didn’t. I was raised in Evanston, Wyoming, and there’s no Catholic school there. As a matter of fact, there’s not many Catholics. When I graduated from Evanston High School, I received a scholarship to go to Carol College, which is a Catholic school, not because I was the smartest kid in school, it’s because I was the only Catholic. So, that’s how I got—but I didn’t go to—in those days it was during the Depression. I’m an old guy. I’ll be 89 next month, and so that was right through the Depression, and there was no money to send a kid to school away from home, so I didn’t go to Carol College. After a while, I became the president again of the St. Joseph boosters. So, I decided they needed an athletic field. We got the Boosters together, and we got the job corps to level out that land up there where the athletic field is now, but it wasn’t like that. We put in the sprinkler system, pumped water from the ditch up above the school, and got it working for a while, and finally, it just kind of fell apart after a few years. There’s a beautiful field up there now, I don’t know if you’ve seen it, but it is very good. I really don’t know where all the money come from for that. But Joseph, Mike Joseph, must have donated quite a little bit, because the field was named after his father, Lou Joseph. Lou Joseph Field. Let’s see, I don’t know what else to tell you. SS: Why did you decide to send your kids to St. Joe’s? 2 JS: To get the religious education, and I figured that they would get a little more attention in a private school like that, where there’s not so many kids. It would build ‘em, not only mentally, but socially. They would be forced to, you know, meet people and get a little closer to ‘em. I was very well content with the education they got and the friendship that they had with the people there. Let’s see, I guess I didn’t do much else, other than the Boosters. I was on the first committee that got that started. SS: When did that start? JS: I don’t know. SS: A while ago? JS: Yeah, a long time ago, long time ago. It started to get people involved with athletes, go up and see the games and stuff like that. After a while, we started doing little things like having steak fries and things like that, that made a little money. Paul, as coach, would come to us and say, “I think the kids need new uniforms this year,” and we would dole over the money for the uniforms. Now it’s gotten bigger and it’s developed into a fundraising group that every year they put money into the athletic program. SS: Are you still in the Booster Club? JS: No, I’m not active at all now. We don’t go to the meetings. Elsie doesn’t feel well now, and we don’t go to the meetings, so we haven’t been active in the last, we’ll say, year. But before that we were. SS: So, did your kids send their kids to St. Joe’s? 3 JS: Yes they did. I went for 50 years with one of my kids or grandkids in St. Joseph grade school and high school. I had five children. Three of ‘em don’t live here anymore, but two of ‘em did, and they send their kids to St. Joseph. Each one of ‘em had three children, and they sent theirs there all through from grade one to grade 12, and they all graduated. Ended up good kids. I like ‘em. SS: When your kids graduated, did they end up with scholarships to colleges? JS: Let’s see, Annette did, and one of ‘em did, to Weber State. They all went to Weber State. My oldest boy went there, and from there it was the time of the Vietnam War, and so he went into the service. He had graduated from Weber State just before he went in, and he retired just three years ago as a full-bird colonel, so he did well from there. My other son took over my old business. The daughter that went to Weber State finally has gone to Sacramento, and she’s teaching in a school there in Sacramento. She taught for a couple years at St. Joseph High School too, and was a coach in the athletic program for girls. That’s about it. SS: What made you decide to stay involved with the school after your own kids graduated? JS: Oh, well, the Boosters organization did more than just make money for the school. People picked up friendships from the Boosters organization, and it was just fun to belong to, and I was very active in it, and that’s it. SS: Do they raise quite a bit of money for the athletic department? JS: Yeah, they’ll raise, oh, I figure maybe around $8,000 a year, something like that. SS: Do they do it from donations, or the steak fry, or…? 4 JS: Steak fries and the SPREE. They have what they call the SPREE, I don’t know if you’ve heard of it. SS: A little bit. JS: That raises money, but that’s nothing to do with the Boosters, except they go and support it. But they have steak fries, and we used to have a deal that we sold beer and had sauerkraut and weenies and what have you, and that made quite on money, and things like that. SS: That’s interesting. So, you’ve been involved in the school for a long time. JS: Oh yeah. I went for a long, long time having a season ticket for St. Joseph’s basketball games. I don’t know how many years, but we’ll say 45 or something like that, before my kids ever got into high school. SS: Oh wow. JS: As a matter of fact, I used to go to the games when Paul Willard was playing. It’s a long, long time, and he’s, what is he, he’s… SS: He graduated, I think, in 1960. JS: Yeah. Oh, that’s a long time, I’ll tell you. SS: It’s been a while. JS: Yes, it has. That’s about the size of it for Elsie and I. Elsie’s been right there with me all the time. I wish I could give you more, but… SS: Well, that’s great. JS: That’s my involvement. I’ll tell you another guy, Dick Molumby. SS: Yeah, I have his number too. JS: He’s been very active, and Mike Joseph must have been active in this new field. 5 SS: Yeah, probably. JS: Because it’s named after his dad, so he probably donated quite a little bit to it. SS: What do you have to do to get in the Booster Club? Is there like yearly dues? JS: Just pay $5 a year and you’re in. SS: Oh. Well, that’s not bad at all. JS: No. SS: How often do they have meetings and fundraisers? JS: Well, they have fundraisers four times a year, maybe, and they would have meetings for that. I’d have the meetings here for the one over at St. Mary’s where we sold beer and hotdogs and sauerkraut, and several other meetings I would have here. I have a bar downstairs, and they enjoy that. SS: I’m sure. How many members are there? JS: Oh, hard. At least a hundred. I don’t know. SS: Wow, that’s quite a meeting. JS: Now, what it’s doing right now, I’m not sure, because like I say, I haven’t been active for a year. So, who knows what’s gonna happen. Matter of fact, I haven’t even paid my $5. I’ll have to do that. SS: So, what did you think your kids got out of St. Joseph’s that they wouldn’t have got out of a public school? JS: Well, I think they got a little more attention from the teacher, you know, to make sure they understood. You don’t hear of kids not passing and not doing well. Most of the kids do well. If they have troubles then they quit and go to public 6 school, but most of ‘em get enough attention to where they get good grades in school. My kids did. They did fine. SS: Well, that’s great. JS: I was real happy with them graduating there and the education they got and the friends they made. This is a little narrow-minded, maybe, but I felt—it wasn’t perfect, but I felt that there was a better environment there, you know, than there was at the public schools. It cost a little bit, but it was worth it. SS: What was the tuition when your kids were there? JS: Oh Lord, you pick a time, just all different figures. Now it’s up quite a bit. SS: Yeah, it’s expensive. JS: Yeah, it is. Not only has the school gone up, but wages has gone up, so everything has changed. SS: Was it hard for you guys financially to send five kids there? It’s expensive even sending one, I can’t imagine five. JS: You had to adjust to that. I mean, when we first started putting the kids in, I was working per wages, and you had to take care of that first, and then maybe do without a little something over here or something like that, you know. That’s the way it works. After I went into business I did pretty well, so it wasn’t near the trouble that it was when it first started. So, it all worked out. SS: That’s good. JS: The old Lord takes care of us. SS: What year did your kids graduate? JS: Well, Jerry is 61 now. We could figure this all up, but… 7 SS: So, it would have been, probably in the late 60s, early 70s that he graduated. JS: It’d have been in the 60s I would think, wouldn’t it? SS: Yeah. JS: Well, no. Yeah. Wait a minute. Yeah, I would say 60s. SS: Is that your oldest? JS: That’s my oldest. The youngest one, she’s in her 40s now, and then I’ve got one that’s 53 or something like that, one that’s 50, and one that’s 45. SS: So, there’s a good range. JS: They just went on down, yep. SS: Well, that’s great. JS: I guess that’s about all I can say to you. I just stayed active with it. If they needed work done up there, I would go up [to] the school and do carpenter work for ‘em, stuff like that. We built the… Boy, it was a…. When we as Boosters built the field, the athletic field, I had one guy in the Boosters that could get a truck from the government, so he got the truck from the government, and I had another guy that was involved with Swift’s. They had a place here where they killed animals, and Swift put it up. I could send this truck down and pick up manure from the Swift’s, so I put it all over the field, and then I decided, gosh, as long as I can get this for free, might as well get another load and stack it up so I can use it later. Boy, it was a terrible stench. The neighbors all started complaining, and so I got a guy that had a tractor that he could go through and harrow up the manure that was on the 8 field, kind of cover it up. But the city got after us and charged us to haul the manure away to get the neighbors settled down a little bit. SS: How big was the pile? JS: Big. Big truckload. [People] do dumb things. That’s one of the dumb things I did. SS: That’s funny. JS: So, that’s about it. SS: Well, that’s interesting. JS: Well, it’s a lot of years of association with the school. It’s been good. I’ve been through just about everything with it. SS: Do you think it’s changed a lot? JS: Oh, times change, people change. There’s no Sisters now, and the priests used to go up and teach up there, and they’re not involved now. So, it’s changed a little. The attitude is still good. The principal today is doing a good job too, so it’s all coming along. And you’re just interested in the high school and not the grade school? SS: Mostly the high school. JS: But they’re both coming along good. I don’t have any more kids to send them. SS: [Laughs] You got a lot of grandkids. JS: Well, the grandkids are pretty well through. Now it’s going to start with greatgrandkids pretty quick. SS: Do you think your grandkids will send their kids there? JS: I think so. SS: So, it’s a lot of tradition now? 9 JS: Oh yeah, it’s tradition, and they enjoy going there. When they would do something wrong, or having a little disagreement in school, or not doing just right, I’d tell ‘em, I’d say, “Okay, if you don’t correct this, you’re gonna get out of St. Joseph and go to public school.” So, I didn’t have any trouble. They wanted to stay, so that helped. SS: Well, that’s good. Okay, well. JS: I guess that’s it. SS: Thank you so much Joe. JS: You betcha. I wish I could have been more help to you. SS: Oh no, this is great. JS: That’s the way it goes. 10