W M U Centennial Oral History Collection: Oral histories of Western Michigan University alu mni, f a c ult y, st a ff, and friends collected 1987-2003 for the W M U Centenni al i n 2 0 0 3. T his c oll e cti o n is p art of t h e l ar g er di git al c oll e cti o n, Or al Hist ori es at Western Michigan University, hosted by W M U Librari es. Intervie wee: Gabier, Russell L. ( Russell Louis), 192 7- 2 0 1 8 Intervie wer: Carlson, Le wis H. D ate(s): 1 9 9 0- 1 1- 0 8 L o c ati o n: Kala mazoo ( Mich.) Russell Gabier. Photograph fro m U niversity Arc hives. Please n ote: These recordings and transcriptions, w hic h have preserve d i n t heir ori gi nal u naltere d state, often represent student work and may contain inaccuracies an d ty pogra phical errors. Preferre d citati o n: Oral history intervie w with Russell Ga bier, Nove m ber 8, 1 9 9 0, b y L e wis H. C arls o n, p a g e #, W M U Centennial Oral History Collection, Western Mic hi g a n U ni v ersit y Ar c hi v es. O nli n e: htt p:// ... ( a c c ess e d [ d at e]). Co pyright © 2019 Western Michigan University, Kala m az o o, Mi c hi g a n. All ri g hts r es er v e d. T h e di git al v ersi o n is a v ail a bl e f or e d u c ati o n al us e u n d er ‘F air Us e’ g ui d eli n es. F or a d diti o n al p er missi o n a n d further infor mation contact the W M U Archives, Western Michigan University, Kala mazoo, MI 49008: w mich.edu/library/contact Western Michigan University Western Michigan University Archives, Charles C. an d Lynn L. Zhang Legacy Collections Center, 1650 Oakland Drive, Kala mazoo, MI 49008-5307. (269) 3 8 7- 8 4 9 0 Russ Gabier long time administrator at Western Michigan University and a former student and track and field star at Western. This was recorded on November 8, 1990 by Lew Carlson in Kalamazoo, Michigan Lew: Let me start out by asking of you when you were born, where you were born and your parents Russ: I was born in Lansing, MI the first of October 1927 to Leo and Emily Gabier. Lew: What did you father do? Russ: Well, my father was a farmer and as the years went on during the depression years he did a number of things as most of the farm boys in that part of the country which is up my Mesick Michigan just north of Cadillac, they would go to the cities to look for work during the winter and of course return to work on the farms during the summer. Lew: The soil is not great in Mesick, except for mushrooms Russ: You absolutely correct, there, there are a few farms, they are patches which you probably well understand in that part of the country, you can go down the road five miles and find a decent farm, of maybe 80 acres but everything else around would be poor. But my grandfather was one of the old loggers on the Manistee River and he was an emigrant, his father and his brothers from_ France, and he worked on the river as a logger for a period, a number of years and actually bought land right next the Manistee river, not half a mile away and cleared it and built his home and was a farmer, and my father then grew up on the farm and as he became older he, as I say during the depression years, he went to Detroit, but he came back during the war and after he had worked in the aircraft factories and in Detroit and Muskegon, and eventually ended up in Cadillac working for the new hydro machinery company there Lew: What was your mother's Gabier: Her name was Emiline Edwards and in fact her family lives in Mesick and that is where I spent the first part of my life there, up to the 10th grade and Mesick celebrated its lOOth anniversary this summer and the Edwards family some still lives there, in fact she has a sister-in- law who is still living there at 95 and others Lew: So you went to the Mesick school system through the 10th grade Gabi er: 10th grade and from Mesick, my parents moved to Cadillac and I finished the junior and senior years at Cadillac high school and graduated there, and my parents lived basically for the rest of their lives, I have one brother also graduated from Cadillac high school Lew: and you started running trace in Mesick Gabier: It was interest from that standpoint, No, they didn't have track at Mesick at that time, but when I went to Cadillac since growing up in Mesick I spent most of my time in the woods hunting, fishing and that kind of thing, and I always ran, and when I went to Cadillac, I started the junior year and in the fall the in the gym class the man who was teaching gym class was also a former runner, a track man from Central Michigan University he was teaching there, a fellow by the name of Lynn Kohrman, and he had the boys gyms class one morning run out from Cadillac high school, and it was about 2 miles up through the town there, and came back, and well in that class there was a another boy by the name of Norm Sowels and Norm had taken 3rd place at the state high school track meet in Lansing the previous year, and he was considered the best miler in that part of the country and when we ran in that morning from the phy.ed. class I followed him and because I was enjoyed running, and as it turned out I came in, I came back to the school, considerably ahead of Norm, so right away some of the kids, and also the gym teacher who, as it turned out, became out became the track coach the following year on a substitute basis, and he asked me to go out for track in the spring just because of that, and I knew nothing really about track Lew: that was the first time that you realized ran faster than most kids Gabier: For at least longer distances, right. That's probably true, because I did go out that spring and the urging of some of my buddies and the then track coach, and didn't lose a race. Won every race that I ran that year and went to the State Championship in Class B final, I think 1945 Lew: So you were a junior Gabier: I was a junior, then I went on during the senior year and the same thing, I didn't lose a race throughout the year, I went to the state meet, and took second place, and I was beaten by a fellow by the name of George Hall from Fenton High School, who later came to Western in the last five yards and I had beaten him the previous year, that first year that I had ran as a junior, he was leading the race going into the final curve, coming off the curve, and I caught him and passed him just about five yards before the finish line, so I won that way and then the next year he beat me. A follow -up to that though which is always my favorite story, is that following high school I enlisted in the army and spent two years in Japan, and when I came back, because I had been offered, had offers of scholarships at the University of Michigan and Michigan University at that time, but when I came back there was a fellow up at Cadillac by the name of Jack Comp who had come to Western B-12 program during the war, and he was a basketball enthusiast, he played basketball himself and was always speaking of Buck Read and Western basketball, well anyway, Jack encouraged me to come to Western, and so went I got out of the army in December, another fellow and I drove from Cadillac to Kalamazoo and registered at Western and that is kind of interesting story, but anyway I started Western then in February, because that was the semester system. And the first thing that I did was go out for track, and the first thing that I discovered when I got down to the trace, because I met Tonner Smith, and Tonner talked to me about it, and autographed a little book that he had written in track and field, but at the time Clayton Moss was the track coach and went down to see Clayton, and told him that I wanted to run in track and I was given equipment, and went on the track and the first person I ran into was George Howell, the fellow that I had the competition with, had raced previously, well the thing, George at that point had was bigger and huskier, and wasn't, I didn't feel he was not in trim at that point, he was still running but I am not sure why, buy anyway, in our first inter-squad meet, I was able to beat him again and continued my running Lew: What kind of time, what was your best time in high school Gabier: In high school is was 438.