Joe Spenner 

by: Mylah Etzel

Joe Spenner was born in 1920 in Stayton, Oregon, and lived on Spenner road which is right off of Boedeighemer. He was named after his grandfather, who was born in Germany but left in 1881 due to the Bismark War. He lived with his three brothers and worked on their farm, where they grew and raised everything except for sugar, salt, coffee, and bullets. His dad even built a small plane from scratch. His mom died when he was just fourteen, while his dad died when he was seventeen, so his Aunt Minnie became both a mother and father figure in his life. He said that one time he bought a car for $20 and thought his aunt would be mad, so he hid it from her for a while. Eventually, he got tired of hauling crops around in a wheel barrow, so he finally told her. 

While working on the farm, he would raise hundreds of chickens, and his main job was to find the chickens that were not laying eggs and snatch them out of the flock. He said his first couple of memories were of splitting armloads of wood to keep the fire hot so they could cook chicken for the annual parish dinner. He walked two miles to school every day, and in the winter he would get inflamed blood vessels in his feet caused by repeated exposure to cold air. His house did not have indoor plumbing until 1947, so his family built an outhouse together. His parents would take all their clothes to wash in the river while the kids got to play in the water. He loved Christmas at his aunt’s house, and they did a German tradition where they would light candles on the tree and sit around it and sing. 

Joe was one of five people that graduated from St. Boniface High School, and it wasn’t long before he became the custodian there. During World War II, he worked for the Civil Defence Program. His job was to prepare for the invasion of the Japenese on the Pacific Ocean. In 1964, Regis opened for the first time and he decided to become the first maintenance man. He did a lot for Regis, such as driving the kids to out-of-town basketball games, teaching religion and science classes, helping kids build a wide variety of things, and buying the school’s first computer. He would do anything if it meant the school would keep running. He attended every single sports game he could, and his favorite thing to do was build the fire for the football homecoming bonfire. He was also a Boy Scouts Leader and took the boys on camping trips. 

In his later life, he traveled to India to help priests build churches and a dispensary, and he also raised money for the Right to Life organization. He never married or had children, but he considered the students at Regis to be his ¨kids¨. He even thought about being a priest at one point, but decided he could make more of an impact as the custodian for Regis. When asked about his life he said, ” My goal in life was to glorify God. I wanted to show my faith through my work. I was saved by my faith in Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. I first love God, then my church, and Regis. My life… It’s been a wonderful life.”

Joe Spenner lived an amazing life, and throughout this process of reading about him, I can only strive to be as amazing as he turned out to be. The Regis community owes it’s thanks to Joe Spenner.