MHC English Professor Richard Johnson

Faculty member Richard Johnson, the Lucia, Ruth, and Elizabeth MacGregor Professor of English who taught at Mount Holyoke from 1965 to 2004, died Monday, March 27, 2006, after a long bout with multiple myeloma. In 2001, Professor Johnson had moved with his wife, the Rev. Kay Johnson, to Silver Spring, Maryland, but he remained on the Mount Holyoke faculty until formally retiring in 2004.

During his 39 years on the faculty, Johnson played a leadership role in the Mount Holyoke community, at various times chairing the English Department and the admissions committee, directing the College's summer academic programs, and serving on numerous faculty committees. He was recognized by the Alumnae Quarterly in a 2000 article as one of the College's outstanding teachers. "He pushed me to become a better writer than I ever thought I could be, opened my mind to different ways of thinking, and made me realize that you really can make a living doing something you love," a former student recalled.

On the occasion of his retirement, the College's board of trustees acknowledged the beloved professor's "characteristic wit, imagination, generous good humor, and optimism," and noted his exceptional success in instructing both undergraduates and colleagues "in the pleasures of the life of the mind and of the literary texts that sustain that life."

Johnson's intellectual and personal interests included architecture, art, history, sports, politics, music, and religion. He was an active protester of the Vietnam War, an avid Cubs and Red Sox fan, the architect of his own house in Massachusetts, a basketball and squash player, and a longtime choir member. His publications included Man's Place: An Essay on Auden, and Common Ground, a popular textbook for college-level writing classes coauthored with his Mount Holyoke colleague Carolyn Collette.

A funeral service will be held Saturday, April 1, at 11 a.m. at St. Patrick's Church, 4700 Whitehaven Parkway NW, Washington, D.C. A reception will follow the service. There will also be a memorial service at Mount Holyoke at a later date.

Memorial donations may be made to the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation, www.multiplemyeloma.org