John Johnson

A glorious mind and a beautiful, gentle soul has now passed onwards to the great halls of the Greek Gods who, we hope, will find Ted's infinite and playful associations about everything from high-minded classics to the everyday mundane, truly a ‘hoot!’ (one of Ted's favorite words).

J. Theodore ‘Ted’ Johnson Jr. passed away peacefully at his home on September 29, 2024, with his wife and children nearby. Ted was born on June 8, 1936, in New York City to Barbara Salmon and J. Theodore Johnson. Ted's father, a noted artist and Guggenheim Fellow, informed his exploration of his artistic talents and interest in art, language and French culture. He spent his early years in Minneapolis, MN until the family moved to San José, CA in the early 1940s. Ted graduated from Fremont High School and graduated with great distinction and Honors in French from San José State College in 1958.

Ted received a Fulbright scholarship and studied at the Centre Médiéval at the University of Poitiers, France from 1958-1959. The following year he was a Fulbright lecturer at the University of Poitiers. Ted received his Master's in French at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1961, the same year he met his future wife Mary Greenwood, a fellow PhD student. They met sorting slides of France for the French Club. Ted and Mary were married in June 1962 in Woodmere, NY. Ted received his PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1964 and was hired as Assistant Professor of French at Princeton University, NJ, where he taught from 1964-1968.

In 1968, Ted and Mary with their children, Stephen and Anne, moved to Lawrence, KS, where Ted was hired as an Associate Professor of French from 1968-1975, then Chair of the Department of French and Italian from 1969-1971, and Professor of French from 1975 to 2001.

From 1972 to 1974, Ted directed the KU Junior Year Abroad Program in Bordeaux and the Johnsons lived in France, residing again in Bordeaux during the 1976-1977 academic year when Ted received a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship to study the interrelationship of ideas surrounding the works of Marcel Proust and Claude Monet. He also co-directed the KU Summer Language Institute in Paris during the summers of 1981 and 1983.

Ted was a fervent supporter of the liberal arts and humanities, and conducted courses pro bono in the humanities as well as freshman honors tutorial programs at KU from 1975 to 2000. After retirement, he continued teaching the honors tutorial until 2010. He was a champion of the French Club and along with Mary hosted many dinner parties and events celebrating French culture over several decades, including their annual iconic Bastille Day party.