Jotham Johnson

Jotham Johnson was born October 21, 1905 in Newark, New Jersey to physician Jotham Clarke Johnson and Edith Jennette Compson Johnson. Older sister Katharine (born 1896) was an editor for Vogue magazine in Paris and then "special writer" for Look Magazine until just before she died in 1955.

Johnson graduated from Princeton University in 1926 and transferred to the American School of Classical Studies at Athens and became a fellow in 1927. He received his PhD in Greek from the University of Pennsylvania. and was "field director of the University of Pennsylvania Museum excavations at Minturno, Italy" from 1931 to 1934. He served in the Mediterranean "as a lieutenant commander in the Naval Reserve in 1942-45".

In 1946, Johnson became a professor at New York University and was "named chairman of the classics department in 1948... and of the entire university in 1958". In 1951-1952, he became the Norton Lecturer and "was a research scholar at the University of Rome." He served as the President of the Archaeological Institute of America (AIA) from 1961-1964.

Johnson produced a CBS three-day-a-week show for a New York audience called "Sunrise Semester - Classical Civilization - Mediterranean Archaeology" in 1961. Also, he was host of the West German television program "Footsteps to the Past".

Professional organizations and associations

American Philological Association (APA)

Classical Association of the Atlantic States

New York Classical Club

Vergilian Society

Johnson was married to Sarah Jean Coates in 1941, and they had one child, Jotham Johnson Jr., who died in 2022.

From 1954-56, Johnson wrote a personal column called "For the Record," which was published in many publications across the United States. Some articles were about archaeology news, his opinion of the future of archaeology, stories he had heard, politics and often his belief that college campuses should challenge the students' opinions they brought with them as Freshmen. Free discussion of topics and unpopular opinions should be offered. He encouraged professors to take an opposite opinion of a subject during a discussion, "the more feelings they hurt, the longer the discussions will be remembered", and "If a college education stands for anything, it means that the graduate has been taught to do his own thinking and to reject canned or predigested ideas."

Johnson died of a heart attack during a meeting of department heads on Washington Square. He was 61 years old.

Four generations of Johnson men graduated from Princeton University, starting with Jotham Clarke Johnson M.D., class of 1879, Jotham Johnson, class of 1926, son Jotham Johnson Jr, class of 1964, and Jotham Thomas Johnson in the class of 2000.