Our People of the Century Edward R. Johnstone:Professor Guided Training School at       Vineland to New Methods of Helping Disabled Children

For nearly 50 years, the force that propelled The Training School of Vineland to international renown was Professor Edward R. Johnstone.

Only 28 when he came to town in 1898 as the assistant superintendent of the school for developmentally disabled children, Johnstone took over as superintendent two years later when the school’s founder, the Rev. S. Olin Garrison, died.

The school had been founded in 1887 on the principle that every child deserves to develop to the limits of his ability in an environment where he feels comfortable and is happy. At the time, the idea was radical to a society that out of fear and misunderstanding often kept its mentally retarded behind locked doors.

“Happiness first, and all else follows” was the banner Johnstone inherited and carried throughout his long and distinguished tenure. Fueled by the psychological research lab Johnstone started in 1906, the school set new standards in teacher training, intelligence testing and training programs for developmentally disabled people.

Research conducted at the school furthered the world’s understanding of learning, maturation, and intelligence.

With the 1913 opening of the 1,300-acre Menantico Unit some four miles from the school’s Main and Landis campus, with a new training ground and a place to work. Farmers in the region benefited from the many experts who demonstrated state-of-the-art techniques in poultry and dairy farming, peach orchards, and irrigation.

A year after he retired in 1945, "Uncle Ed," as he was known to Vinelanders, died.

The Training School published a tribute to Johnstone shortly after his death. Colleagues wrote about his close relationship to the children and adults living at the training school, and how he often read stories to them and knew each by name.

He didn't live to see the state honor him in 1955 with the Edward R. Johnsone Training and Research Center in Bordentown, or the town he adopted name its then-newest elementary school after him in 1957.

But his legacy continues in the work of the 115-year-old school he sculpted during the first half of the century.