John Theodore Johnson, Jr.

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.

Teaching was one of Ted’s greatest joys. His teaching evaluations garnered accolades far above the norm for they reflect a professor who imparted wisdom and courage, bravery and risk to his pupils. The outpouring of love and remembrances from his former students has been a true testament to his lasting impact and his rare gifts. Student evaluations often named Ted as the best professor they ever had while attending KU. Ted was awarded the H.O.P.E. award in 1992, an award for which he was most proud as it was student generated. He also received a Mortar Board Teaching Award for outstanding educator in 1975, and the Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching in 1978.

Ted often commented, “A university deals with everything in the universe,” and this was true of Ted himself. He possessed an encyclopedic mind that encompassed the night sky, gardening, opera, literature, poetry, visual art, architecture, philosophy, linguistics, iconography, and all things Greek, in addition to many other interests. Ted’s deep appreciation for the KU campus and for Mount Oread fostered his annual Stop Day walking tours and early morning gatherings on the fall and spring equinoxes. A “quintessential Ted” highlight was observing the equinox sunrise transform a perfectly aligned manhole cover on 14^th Street into a golden orb of delight. His Socratic approach planted new ways of seeing the world in the minds of those fortunate to experience the wonder of his imaginative associations and profound insights.

Ted was the founding editor of the Proust Research Association Newsletter from 1969 to 1988, the Assistant Editor of the French Review from 1968 to 1983, and authored numerous publications and gave countless presentations to groups both in the United States and in France. His newsletter was a labor of love and was appreciated by colleagues and fellow Proustians worldwide.

Ted was a member of Mid-America Mensa and his “Theodore Talks,” an online Mensa lecture series named in his honor, has been viewed in 49 states and 10 foreign countries. In the 1980s, Ted co-founded a local life drawing group whose camaraderie and pleasant repartee he greatly enjoyed. Most recently, Ted was preparing an article concerning the painting An Idyll (Pastoral Landscape) in the Spencer Art Museum of Art by the Baroque artist Claude Lorrain, and Lorrain’s connection to Galileo and the academic tradition.

Ted was immensely proud of his children, Anne and Stephen. He championed their personal development and professional accomplishments from childhood onward with unreserved enthusiasm, and would often expound upon their unique sense of style and grace with a delighted twinkle in his eye. He spoke admiringly of their kind and compassionate interactions with others, character qualities he found profoundly beautiful.

During the past few decades of retirement, Ted and his dear wife Mary of 62 years traveled the world enjoying the rich cultures of Europe, Asia, Central, and South America. They relished spending quiet moments together sitting peacefully at a café in a foreign land capturing the local scenery in watercolor. Back in Lawrence, they would recreate the same romantic flavor of travel in their own home with food and guests, always celebrating the present moment.

Ted left an indelible mark on friends, students, and all those with an open mind and heart by engaging in lively and memorable exchanges of ideas. In his gentle, improvisational manner, Ted nurtured new perceptions and interrelationships concerning a multitude of diverse topics. He freely offered this to all takers, expanding their view of the world and sense of creative potential and of shared humanness. He did this with sheer love and joy, and will be deeply missed by all who knew him.

Ted Johnson is survived by his wife Mary Greenwood Johnson and their Irish Setter Ruddy of the home; his son Stephen Johnson (Lawrence); his daughter Anne Johnson and husband Chris Hepp (Lawrence); granddaughters Sophia Johnson (Brooklyn, NY) and Emma Johnson (Lawrence); and their mother Debbie Goldberg (Lawrence); step-granddaughter Mikaela Gordon Hepp (West Palm Beach, FL); sister-in-law Jenny Johnson (Santa Cruz, CA); brother-in-law Bill Greenwood and wife Cathleen (Dunedin, FL); and numerous nieces, nephews, and friends both in the U.S. and Europe. Special thanks go to our wonderful caregiver friends, Heather Lambert and Tia Weathers.

A celebration of life for Ted will be held at the spring equinox and an exhibition of his life drawings will be held at the Cider Gallery in March. Ted’s archives will soon be housed and available for research at KU. The family welcomes donations to the Ted Johnson Interrelations of the Humanities and the Arts award @kuendowment.org/tedjohnson.