Alumni News
Faculty Member Bruce Johnson
Retired Badger High School English teacher Bruce Johnson reached two milestones in early May 2020. He celebrated his 93rd birthday and launched his first book, And Gladly Would He Teach and Learn, on Amazon.com.
From 1988 to 2016, Johnson wrote 1,487 essays about his teaching career and his diverse interests. In the fall of 2017, his friend and former Badger English teacher Robert Pavlik, a retired Marquette University professor, read and organized the essays, selected and edited those for publication, and completed the project in 2020 with the help of Johnson’s daughter, teacher Diane Foster of San Antonio, Texas, BHS Class of ’70.
The book is divided into two parts: And Gladly Would He Teach focuses on Johnson’s experiences becoming and growing as an English teacher from the late 1950s to the mid-1980s. And Gladly Would He Learn reflects on the vast knowledge he gained from his many avocations.
He joined the faculty at Badger High School in the fall of 1958, teaching English for 28 years and journalism for 17 of those years. His approximately 3,000 students remember his passion for language, literature, and writing.
Students who never had Johnson as their teacher might remember him as the man with the Nikon camera around his neck capturing candid views on slide film of classmates in a variety of school activities.
His book is dedicated to his late wife, Beverly, who was also a Badger High School teacher. He continues to reside in Lake Geneva.
