John Hansen

I am so sorry for your loss. My brother and I were both students at Waldo about 50 years ago. John Hansen is a man we will never forget. Mr. Hansen, as we were taught to call him, was a patient, kind and gentle man. His attention to details whether it was sharpening a jack plane blade or squaring a board was always second to none. I always remember him sharpening a plane blade very sharp and to demonstrate he would shave the hair in his arm with it. Both Mr. Hansen and Mr. Thornton had...

I was extremely fortunate to grow up next to John and his family on park Avenue.
John was the moral coumpus in what I consider a idealic neighborhood to be part of. His willingness to always help and teach others was unsurpassed, they were talking about him when they coined the phrase a life well lived !

My condolences to Helen, Bruce,Paul,Carol, and the entire family.

Jim Gullickson

Mr. Hansen was my wood shop teacher at Waldo, and Bruce and I were friends way back then. He was a good man and caring teacher. I and others have had discussions “offline” about his passing, recalling our projects in his class, some of which we still have to this day (tie racks, recipe boxes). To his everlasting credit and my good fortune, the basic safety techniques Mr. Hansen taught back then about working with power tools have saved me many a time from injury. My heart goes out to the...

John and I worked at Waldo many years ago and he lived on Park, down the street from me when I lived in an apartment on Park Ave. I always admired John and how he related to students. Always patient and willing to take on anything and everybody. I remember his driving that red Ford, I think it was. The car was passed from family to family among the Waldo faculty. Waldo has a wealth of stories about our times working there. When I moved into my house on Jefferson, John would sometimes...