 | The Cavalier daily Tuesday, October 24, 1972 |  |
History Prof. Johnson
Dies At 76 In Home
By MARGARET ALFORD
Thomas Cary Johnson,
professor emeritus of history,
died Wednesday at his
Charlottesville home. He was
76.
He retired from University
teaching in 1967 after a long
and distinguished career.
Brought to the University in
1928 by Dumas Malone to
teach undergraduate American
history and English history,
Mr. Johnson took a year's leave
of absence in 1932-33 on a
Laura Spellman Rockefeller
Foundation research grant,
which resulted in the
publication of a book,
"Scientific Interests in the Old
South."
History Chairman
He was named history
department chairman in 1938,
but stopped teaching
temporarily in 1941 to serve
on active duty in the U.S. Navy
during World War II.
He returned to the
University in 1945, teaching
English history, and was
department chairman until
1947.
He was a member of Kappa
Sigma, Phi Beta Kappa and the
Raven Society.
Born July 15, 1896 at
Hampden-Sydney College,
Prince Edward County, he
attended the Richmond
Academy for Boys, receiving
his B.A. in 1915 from
Hampden-Sydney and his M.A.
in English from the University
in 1916.
He taught at V.P.I. from
1916-17, and was
commissioned as an ensign,
USNRF, in 1918. In 1919, he
returned to V.P.I, teaching
English, then moving to
Hampden-Sydney to teach
history, political science and
economics from 1920-23.
He received his M.A. in
history from Princeton in
1924, and began teaching
history at Yale in 1924. For a
year prior to his coming to the
University, he taught at Wake
Forest University.
"He loved the University,"
his wife, Dorothy Chamberlain
Johnson, said. "He hated to see
it change, but he knew that
change was inevitable."
"He felt that his greatest
accomplishment was
convincing University Pres.
Alderman not to segregate the
McCormick Road dorms by
class. He thought that the
younger boys had a lot to learn
from listening to the upperclass
students."
| The Cavalier daily Tuesday, October 24, 1972 | |