The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Gunnison High School students honor local legend
By Mike Callihan
One-hundred-and-three-year-old Graham Witherspoon is Gunnison County’s oldest and last World War II veteran. During his lifetime he has received many honors and awards, but the one that three young men from the 10-member Gunnison High School Legion Club—Udev Vijay, Spencer Hays and Gavin Vasquez—presented to him this past November 29 visibly affected him.
Maybe it was the 85-year age difference between him and the students from the high school, or perhaps it was his remembering the young men—boys, really—that he knew and served with in the Navy during WWII, some of whom didn’t come home. In any event there was a tangible connection made that day—Graham smiled as big a smile as I’ve ever seen him smile as the young men introduced themselves.
Then those three students explained that they were presenting him with a framed certificate showing that they had arranged for his name and rank and other service particulars to be inscribed on a brick that will be placed in the permanent “Road to Victory“ walkway at the WWII Museum in New Orleans.
The Legion Club had paid for that special brick with proceeds from On a Note of Triumph, a play I directed at the high school this past May 8, a date which not coincidentally was, in 1945, VE Day—Victory in Europe Day—the day Germany surrendered. The cast and crew featured actors from both ends of the Gunnison Valley, including Crested Butte’s Matt Neufeld in a powerful performance as a Rabbi during the Holocaust.
VE Day didn’t mark the end of the war in the Pacific, of course; that struggle would continue for several more months, but the end was in sight. For Lt. Witherspoon, who served in the Pacific in WWII as captain of a large landing craft, the outcome was not in doubt, but the timing was. Only when Japan surrendered unconditionally on September 2, 1945 could he and tens of thousands of other men and women involved in the war effort breathe a sigh of relief.
The takeaway from the Legion Club presentation to Graham is that of all things on which they could have spent those proceeds, the young men unanimously chose to honor Lt. Witherspoon’s service. As GHS teacher and Legion Club supporter, Mark High put it: “They like hands-on work more than listening to someone lecture them about patriotism.”
So, in this season of giving, let’s be thankful that the Gunnison High School Legion Club gave our county’s oldest surviving WWII veteran such a thoughtful and powerful gift. Lives on both sides of the parting handshakes were changed that day.
And as we were leaving Graham’s room at the Senior Care Center I turned and, as I always do, saluted him. As I did, I said, “Goodbye, Lieutenant. Have a merry 103rd Christmas.” He returned my salute like he always does, but in a quiet voice and as if he’d read my mind, he said “I’ll be right here.”
For now, and for countless Christmases yet to come, yes, he will be.
To see the Brady Snow Production of Mike Callihan’s 2022 interview of Graham Witherspoon on YouTube go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eM3XqpIQojo
