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John J. Page attended 13 schools before graduating from high school in the Ozark Hill Country of Oklahoma. Although he engaged in no combat, he was drafted into military after completing two years of college at the University of Oklahoma in Norman, Oklahoma. After his discharge from the U.S. Air Force, he helped his wife, Reitha, finish the credits she needed to complete her degree, and he then worked to complete his in Norman. Following his graduation, the couple relocated to Las Vegas in February 1959, when Reitha found a job at Washington Elementary School. In Las Vegas John completed his practice teaching under master teacher Lamar Terry at Twin Lakes Elementary School and under supervision of Dr. Holbert Hendrix at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. John held his first teaching assignment, fifth grade at West Charleston Elementary School (later called Howard Wasden Elementary School), for 27 years before transferring with his principal to Helen Marie Smith Elementary School. For a time John and Reitha rented a small house at the comer of Bonanza Road and First Street that was owned by entertainer Horace Heidt. They bought their first house, a Pardee Park Home one block north of Tom Williams Elementary School in North Las Vegas, because Reitha taught there, and she and the children could walk to school together. In 1973 they bought their current house on El Cortez Avenue in the Westleigh tract. Page not only worked in Ward 1 for 27 years of his 36-year teaching career (1959-1995); he and his family also lived in Ward 1 for more than forty years. As a teacher in the school that served the wealthiest Las Vegas families, Page witnessed the many ways that generous donations of time, money, and talent matter to schools, students, and teachers. As an early resident of Westleigh tract, Page saw dramatic changes to the area's built environment. And as a longtime educator, Page observed several cycles of experimental instmctional techniques and philosophies.

From the Lincy Institute "Perspectives from the COVID-19 Pandemic" Oral History Project (MS-01178) -- Education sector interviews file.