Bio: Gardner, Wayne S. (Essay Contest Winner - 1958)

Contact: Stan
Email: stan@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

Surnames: Gardner, Johnson, Eisenhower, Ruchaber

----Source: OWEN ENTERPRISE (Owen, Clark County, Wis.) 05/15/1958

Gardner, Wayne S. (Essay Contest Winner - MAY 1958)

His advice on the importance of employing the physically handicapped won an audience with the President of the United States at Washington, D.C., May 8, for Wayne S. Gardner, 16, route 1, Granton (Clark Co., Wis.).

A junior at Granton High School, young Gardner won first place in Wisconsin and second place in the nation with his essay on employing the physically handicapped.  The contest is sponsored and prizes offered by the Disabled American Veterans under the auspices of the President’s Committee on Employment of the Physically Handicapped.

Cong. Lester Johnson, the Granton youth’s representative in Congress from Wisconsin’s Ninth District, congratulated him at the Departmental Auditorium.

"This is quite an honor for Granton," the congressman told him.  "Your work is a credit to your school, the district, and the state."

President Eisenhower spoke to a large audience at the ceremony and presented the awards to Gardner and other winners from throughout the United States.  First Place went to George Kesler, Augusta, Ga.

Other speakers included Secretary of Commerce, Sinclair Weeks, James T. O’Connell, Under Secretary of Labor; Edward F. Wilson, Assistant Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare; Gen. Alfred M. Gruenther, president of the Red Cross; and Major General Melvin J. Maas, chairman of the committee.

Gardner brought with him a large package with an assortment of gaily wraped packages of cheese for the President from Wisconsin.  He was accompanied on his flight to the nation’s capital by Ralph O’Connor, chairman, and A.L. Beier, secretary, of the Wisconsin committee on Employment of the Physically Handicapped.  Gardner also received a wooden plaque to go to Granton High School, where Mrs. Oliva Ruchaber is his English instructor.