CSULB Custodian a Pillar of Support--On and Off Campus

In the halls of the Cal State Long Beach Student Union, amid the food shops, pool tables and meeting rooms, an unlikely guru can be found.

He is known to administrators as lead custodian. But to students, Willie Johnson is a figure of wisdom, a voice of support during troubled times.

“I tell him he’s like an angel from above,” said Bernetta James, 18, a CSULB criminal justice major. “When I first came to campus, I didn’t know anyone. I was having problems with school, family, my boyfriend.” Johnson noticed that she looked unhappy and approached her.

“He took the time to talk to me and told me everything will be all right if I just believe in myself,” James said. “He is a true friend.”

Johnson, a big man with a ready smile, started working as a janitor at Cal State Long Beach in 1982. “These walls are a highway,” he said. “And as these students pass through, I’m there for them.”

His message is simple: Give and you really receive.

“Some tell me that without me they wouldn’t be able to make it through these walls,” Johnson said. “I turn around and say ‘Without you, I wouldn’t be here.’ ”

Biochemistry major Shretta Gibson, 19, says she can tell Johnson anything. “We often talk and pray together,” she said. “If I get in trouble, I know he’ll be there for me.”

Johnson, 51, is also a Pentecostal minister and has performed wedding ceremonies for two CSULB couples since he was ordained three years ago.

Johnson officiated when nursing major Edward Lair, 23, married English major Fredericka Brown, 24, on campus last June.

“Just before I was married, I came to campus frustrated, with some jitters. Willie saw that, and took an hour just to talk with me, and we read Scriptures,” Lair said. “After that, I was ready to deal with things and work things out.”

Fridays, Johnson can be found at the Community Chapel Church in Compton, where he and Barbara, his wife of 32 years, feed 50 to 100 homeless people.

Recently, they dished up meat loaf, mashed potatoes, corn bread and salad. “Real down-to-earth soul food,” Johnson said with a grin.

Drigia Gardner, coordinator of the feeding program at the church, said the Johnsons not only prepare but pay for the food, usually about $100.

Now that most of their children are grown, they have more to share, he said. At one time, however, Johnson was not sure if he would be able to feed his family.

He and his wife came to Long Beach from Chicago in 1979 with 14 children, 11 of their own and three adopted from his wife’s sister. Although he found a job as a pipe fitter, the money was not enough to pay rent after feeding 16.

The family spent three years in a 28-foot mobile home, staying at parks until neighbors called police. “If an individual hasn’t been homeless themselves, you just can’t understand the plight they’re in,” he said.

Johnson’s work for the homeless and the time he gives to students do not interfere with his work, supervisor Noel Claxton said. “He’s a jocular, jubilant kind of person, but not in a bad sense because he is a hard worker,” Claxton said.

“If you reach out to others, they can’t help but do the same,” Johnson said. “It’s like when I smile, and somebody also smiles, and then it just keeps going, you see?”

Lair, who now works part time at the student union, said: “Sometimes a smiling face can make all the difference in the world.”

John Allen, assistant county district attorney, has been named chairman of the Long Beach Transit Board of Directors. Allen has been on the board since 1985. He is also chairman of the Long Beach Bar Assn. Scholarship Committee.

Cerritos resident Walter LaBier has been named Long Beach Transit Employee of the Year. LaBier supervises the maintenance department and has worked for the company for 31 years.

Whitney High School junior Matthew Gutierrez was among 350 high school students from across the nation to participate recently in a Congressional Youth Leadership Council conference in Washington. The Cerritos resident was chosen for demonstrating academic achievement, leadership and citizenship.

Whittier College senior Robert Ryan is one of 10 students chosen nationally to intern in the Office of the General Counsel in Washington.