Hi, I’m Thom

Graff Tails

Son of Thomas and Pauline Mae Graff Gruber.  Tom was born the fourth of April, 1935, at Columbus, Ohio.

He has never been married.

Compliments of Thomas Gordon Gruber:

I have had a very interesting life.  More than anything I am most proud of being a teacher at St. Johns School of Ontario.

To be a teacher is not the most unusual occupation in the world.  To teach at St. Johns is unusual, however, mainly because of its curriculum and activities for boys.  The pleasure and joy of it is to send home a happy bunch of kids in June that came to us bitter, mean, lost boys who felt little more than anger and hostility.

The best of my life in the United States of America, were the years when Charles Harringion and I were interested in horses and seeing the country side.  Most kids would ride bikes and did too, but we loved the saddle up Chuck’s horse and prowl the fields along Columbus’s Hudson Street.

If I spent three hours a day indoors in those years of wonderful summers, I would be most surprised.  My good mother and father understood my nature, I guess.  They gave me a great freedom to do as I pleased.  It did not please them I suppose, but they did not punish me for my absence from home so much and accepted the worry of a child who would stray all over Ohio.  Especially to the hill country along the Ohio river.  One of my ambitions has been, and I may get to do it yet, is float on a raft from Portmounts, Ohio to New Orleans.

When I was 15, my friend and I worked for money to finance a trip to Mexico City.  We enjoyed the cosmopolitan mysteries of boarding crossing, languages and the unknown.  We taught ourselves quite good Spanish before we went and both of us were fluently conversant with the Mexicans.  One year after (16 years old) we hitch-hiked to the border secretly and went for another visit to Mexico City.

I became bored with Columbus, Ohio at the age of 18 and after High School I went to the United States Aire Force.

Well talk about Columbus being boring — No doubt about it. 

This was the most useless bunch of nothing I ever did.  I resented the waste of taxes and the stupidity of the ones who ran the establishment.  I still maintain that these people are bilking the American people.

After I was out of the United States Air Force I went home to Ohio, worked a while and decided to study Spanish Languages.  I graduated from Capital University in 1963 and went off to teach public school.

I suppose opinionated people are by definition boring, but my particular persuasions put me into absolute, uncompromising imposition to the philosophy of the public education almost immediately.  Being opinionated and perhaps, therefore boring, plotted my way out of the public school system.  I have satisfied myself that this sort of thing is not for me, Public education offers very little to an individual in acquiring self-discipline.  Rather it encourages a self-indulgence and ultimately the negation of personal freedom in later life.  I am also stuffy, as you can see, for such arguments implies that I feel I’m more compete”nt” than bureaucrats, to make certain decisions.  (forgive this stuffiness of your old cousin).

Some people have found it a worth goal to earn a lot of dough in this life and to retire well.  It is a worthy goal.  I have questioned the worthiness of a state that assigns people (old people) to the trash heap, however, and found that life was better and more promising north of the border.  I have, in spite of my stuffiness always valued North America political Democracy.  I lament that our freedom and liberty have not grown as our wealth has grown.  Rather, over fear of Russia and things we don’t understand, have grown.  I don’t suppose I could feel that.

Thomas Gordon Gruber of Graff.

My official name as it appears in the ministry of Immigration and foreign affairs, Republic of Columbia.

From year of 1941 to 1944 I attended school at 11th ave. Element, Columbus, Ohio, 1944-1947 Milo Element, Columbus, Ohio.  In June of 1953 I graduated from Linden McKinley High School.  At that time in my life I joined the United States Air Force.  I was in that from Feb 1954 – Oct 1957.

1963, June, Graduated from Capital University, Columbus, Ohio.  My major was Spanish, French; Education Monnier award for French; President of the Les Gaulois 9French Club); Pres. of Los Romanceros (Spanish Club); Dorm. Resident at “The Outpost”

1963-1964: taught Spanish at Harding High School, Marion, Ohio.  United States Pease Corpes training, San Juan-Arecibo, Puerto Rico.

United States Peace Corps: Colombia, South America; Coordinator of Educational; Television, Dept. of Caldos. Pub. Recreation and education.  Projects in Salamina, Manizales and El Espinal, Colombia 1966-1967.

1967-1968: Spanish and French teacher, Eastmoor Jr. High School, Columbus, Ohio.

1968-1969: Teaching French, Geography, English, Soccer Coach, Assistance Choir Master, at McAdam Composite High School, McAdam, New Brunswick, Canada.

1969-1970: Teaching French at Philemon Wright Protestant Reg. High School, Hull, Quebec.

1970-1974: Teacher, Comptroller of Budget; St Johns Cathedral (Anglican) Boys School, Selkirk, Manitoba, Canada.  History of U.S., China, and U.S.S.R.; English Literature, French, Geography, Religion, Choir, Outdoor Events, Canoe, snowshoe, and athletics.

Warehouseman for Tillsonburg Pipe and Supply Co., Cookstown, Ontario.

1979: Canadian Naturalization, October 30.

Teacher at St Johns School (Anglican) of Ontario, Claremont, Ontario; French, English, Outdoor events, canoeing, snowshoeing, athletics.

-end of personally written history-