DON DENNIS AND ANN (MILLER) DENNIS FAMILY WEBSITE 

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   POW  WWII             "It All Began"                   "....And an Electric Chair"

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Pueblo Junior College was a 2-year College.  After getting out of the active Army in December 1957, Don enrolled for the January 1958 quarter.      He attended Pueblo College from January 1958 until December 1959, completing his courses in 5 quarters and graduating.  He immediately went to work for the Pueblo Chieftain newspaper.

1959/1960 Tsanti Yearbook picture

In 1963 Pueblo College became a 4-year college, Southern Colorado State College.   Married and working in Grand Junction, Don decided to move the family back to Pueblo and complete his 4-year degree.   He attended college this time year-round  from September 1964 until December 1967 (while working at the Pueblo Chieftain) and was one course short of graduation when the Fairbanks opportunity arose.        He completed this final course at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks.

 
1964/1965 Tsanti Yearbook Picture

He finished with a Major in Business Administration and Minors in Journalism and Economics.

Over the years Don did graduate work at Columbia University in New York and obtained additional units from LaVerne College and Santa Clara University.

College Book costs in 1958

Tuition at Pueblo Junior College was $20 a
quarter, plus a $7.00 activity ticket charge.

First Don, in Jan - March of 1958, lived at 606 Abriendo, with the Virgil Bugg Family. 
Rent was $18 a week, for room and board.
His roommate was Lawrence Baseggio from Atwood, CO (Sterling, CO).
Then both moved from this boarding house to the home below.

Michigan Ave home of Mrs. Flood, where Don, Jerry Hummitzsch,
Lawrence Baseggio and 5 other young men
 lived during the spring of 1958.

Jerry Hummitzsch, PJC photo, 1958
(see bottom of page)

516 Gaylord, Pueblo, CO, home of Jack and Hazel Eaton.
  Don lived there from fall of 1958-January 1961
Vern Warren roomed there first and got Don a room in Sept 1958.

Vern Warren from La Veta, CO
PJC Photo, 1958

PUEBLO JUNIOR COLLEGE STUDENT HANDBOOK
click to enlarge

1959

 

Pueblo Junior College enrolled 1,100 students in the fall of 1958, 58-59 school year.

 

Don arrived in Pueblo to start College in January 1958.   He was a full time student and didn't work other than to  help out occasionally at the Uptown Theater in the Mesa Junction section of Pueblo, sometimes traveling with Mitch Kelloff to the San Luis Valley to pick up and drop off films from other theaters he owned.  The Uptown Theater was owned by Mitchell and Ann Kelloff for whom he had worked as projectionist at the Valley Theater in Fowler during high school. 

During the summer of 1958 Don managed the Spur Theater in La Veta, CO, for the Kelloffs and went to summer Army camp and postal school in Indianapolis; Ft. Benjamin Harrison.

Courtesy LaVeta Historic Preservation Committee and Kathy Kiernen Martin
(Click to enlarge)

In September 1958 he moved back for college in Pueblo, where there was a record snowfall in early September, breaking off tree limbs and causing damage.  Don and friends borrowed a big truck and made enough money hauling trees away etc, that he didn't have to work for awhile as he started college.      

During the holidays, Nov and Dec of 1958, he took a job as mail carrier on Pueblo's East Side.      

In April and May of 1959 he worked at Colorado Fuel and Iron, the Pueblo steel mill. 

That summer, 1959,  he moved back to La Veta, CO and worked at Charlie's, the Masinton's store, after summer Army camp at Ft. Carson, CO.  

Yearly he attended a weekly meeting, spent a weekend a month and a two week summer camp with Uncle Sam, fulfilling his 8 year army commitment.

In September 1959 he went back to Pueblo to complete college and on November 3, 1959 was hired by the Pueblo Chieftain newspaper starting work three weeks later.

  Charlie's Cash and Carry, La Veta, CO
Charlie Masinton's Grocery Store.

 

2007 Masinton Park

1956-1957_ Tsanti Yrbk

1958-1959 Yearbook

1959-1960 Yearbook

1964 1965 Tsanti Yrbk

Don worked in the original newspaper office of the Pueblo Chieftain when he first went to work for the Chieftain in November of 1959.    The offices for 24 years had been in a downtown old stone office building, 211 W. 5th St, with the newsroom on the second floor and the business offices on the fourth floor.   The last of the old-style newsmen worked there.    One reporter had never ridden in a car and if you saw him walking and offered him a ride, he would turn you down.   Another wore a straw hat with "PRESS"  written on a card, standing in his hat band.   They spanned 50 years of  newspaper reporting, having worked with  Damon Runyon and various other old famous characters.   Everyone beat their Underwood typewriters to death pouring out reams of copy.   

The Chieftain broke ground in February 1960 and eventually moved to their new building within about a year of Don working there.   They upgraded to electric typewriters but the "old timers"  kept the Underwoods humming.    The old characters slowly dropped out and retired in the next few years.   It was "too different".  They taught Don so much  about reporting.   He has always considered those first 2-3 years the pinnacle of his newspaper days.  He was also a stringer for the AP and UPI, earning $10-20 per story they used.

In Fairbanks with the News Miner, the newspaper upgraded to computers in the 1970's.  Don kept his old Underwood, and when it no longer would work with the system he reluctantly retired it, brought it home and it kept a place of honor for years.   He doesn't like computers, although he understands them pretty well and does email when he has to....  he prefers to use a typewriter.

He worked for newspapers from December 1959 until November 1979, and still writes sports copy for different publications and the Goldpanner website,  www.goldpanners.com .

              DON DENNIS AND ANN (MILLER) DENNIS FAMILY WEBSITE 

  NEW on the site  

        Calendars 56-61  

Driving to Alaska 09

2009 Goldpanner Barnstorming Trip

click for: Sturgis  Menu  (100 + pages of Sturgis material)

 click for:  Fowler Menu  (100 + pages of Fowler material)

   POW  WWII             "It All Began"                   "....And an Electric Chair"

Copyright law precludes use of others work without explicit permission.  Web pages, by law,  are protected as soon as created.   www.dondennisfamily.com reserves the right to pursue unauthorized users of any image, clip or text from this website. If you violate our intellectual property you may be liable to pay compensation,  and where appropriate, the costs of collection and/or statutory damages.  Material is watermarked with transparent overlay or marked, and our presentation of this material is copyrighted.  No part of this website or the related files may be reproduced or transmitted in any form, by any means (electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without  prior written permission. (THIS MEANS:  DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT USING ANY OF OUR SCANS!)