'Why Not Be Ridiculous Just Once?'

'Why not be ridiculous just once?'

By JULIE WIERNIK
NEW HIGHER EDUCATION REPORTER

Herb Johe wanted nothing to do with the usual gold watch, so on Tuesday he orchestrated his own retirement bash.

“Why not be ridiculous just once? It may be my last chance, and darn it, I’m going to do what I want,” explained the retiring University of Michigan professor of architecture.

He started by painting his tennis shoes iridescent orange.

And then, while friends were eating finger sandwiches and chatting quietly, the professor made a guest appearance as the Shakey Jake of North Campus.

“I need something to do in retirement, so I decided to combine my love of color with my love of music,” he explained to an hysterical audience.

Shakey Jake, Ann Arbor’s most eclectic citizen and street personality, would have been envious.

The 70-year-old professor (his wife says he’s old enough to know better) played a squeaky fiddle while he tapped time with his dazzling tennis shoes. Best of all were his pants, too colorful even for a circus clown.

“I won’t infringe on Jake’s territory,” Johe promised. “I’ll stay up here on North Campus and he can have the streets downtown."

The architecture professor, who also served as assistant dean in the College of Architecture and Urban Planning, came to U-M in 1947.

“I’ve been here 37 years, and this has been the happiest one yet,” he said.

Johe spent the year teaching watercolor, a rendering technique which was abandoned by professional architects many years ago. Instead, architects took to using ink, colored pencils and other methods.

Now, though, watercolor renderings once again are becoming popular.

“I just sit here and paint,” said Johe of his teaching method. “I don’t go around with my hands in my pockets and look at what they’re doing.”

Johe collected all the watercolors he painted during the last two semesters and presented them to his students.

“He’s the only teacher I’ve known in graduate school who ever praises your work,” said Daniel Crawford, one of 70 students Johe invited to his bash on Tuesday. “He even gives out prizes and pins ribbons on your work.”

Johe’s students presented him not with a gold watch -- but with a corny song and a gift certificate from Herman’s World of Sporting Goods.

Friends said Johe plays tennis much better than he plays the fiddle.

Johe tantalizes students with a stirring rendition on the fiddle

NEWS PHOTO ■ JACK STUBBS