| Founder's Biography |
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Howard Johnston was a native of Iowa and son of a
Presbyterian minister. He grew up in Ames, Iowa and
Chicago, Illinois, where he attended public schools. Howard
then went to Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa on a
scholarship established by his grandfather and graduated in
1935. He began graduate studies in Chicago and launched a
career in teaching, before being drafted into the Army in
World War II. Howard served three years in the South
Pacific where his ship |
was destroyed by a mine field and he
lived for three months on an island on the brink of survival
before being rescued and then deployed to Guadalcanal. |
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It was in the crucible of war that Howard Johnston affirmed his personal
conviction that war was no answer to most problems and that bridges must be
built between peoples of the world and that diplomacy should be used to prevent
war and advance mutual understanding. After the war, Howard returned to the
United States and attended Columbia University in New York City, earning
masters and doctorate degrees in Political Science. It was in New York that
Howard met his wife Jeanne Sheetz, who was also a native of Iowa and graduate of
Coe College and Columbia University, although they had never met until they
became acquainted at Riverside Church in New York City in 1947. After Howard
and Jeanne were married, Howard joined the United States Department of State
and was sent to Berlin to work in the American Occupation of Germany. Howard
was involved in reorganizing Hitler Youth into a YMCA style organization and
instrumental in founding the Free University of Berlin as an alternative to the
Soviet controlled University of Berlin. Free University now enrolls 30,000
students. The Johnston’s son David was born in Germany and son William was
born shortly after their return to New York in 1950. Howard returned to
Columbia University to complete his Ph.D. and continued working with the State
Department’s German desk. |
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Howard’s next assignment was as President of Anatolia College in Thessaloniki,
Greece from 1958-64, a position he was recommended for by his former
supervisors in Germany. Howard guided Anatolia College through a period of
growth and Jeanne helped reorganize and construct a new library for the college.
The time in Greece affirmed a growing commitment by the Johnstons to the
concept of “global citizenship.” Howard and Jeanne returned to the United States
in 1964 and Howard held faculty and academic administration positions at Iowa
Wesleyan College and Fort Lewis College in Colorado. The Johnstons moved to
McPherson, Kansas in 1970 when Howard took the position of executive director
of the Associated Colleges of Central Kansas and he directed this consortium of
private liberal arts colleges until his retirement in 1977. |
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Howard and Jeanne retired to Wichita and became active in the community. In
1988 the Johnstons, together with several of their friends, founded the Global
Learning Center in Wichita. The Global Learning Center is a non-profit community
education organization dedicated to advancing understanding between peoples of
different cultures and fostering awareness of global problems in the Wichita
community. The Global Learning Center found a home at Inter-Faith Ministries at
Market and Murdock, where it maintains an office and holds its monthly
programs. In 2000, the Global Learning Center established the “Howard & Jeanne
Johnston Award for Global Community Citizenship” to honor their lives of
international service and global citizenship. The Johnston Award is presented
annually in October at the Global Learning Center’s United Nations Day banquet.
The board of directors and membership of the Global Learning Center mourn the
loss of their founder and patron, but we celebrate the extraordinary life of Dr.
Howard W. Johnston and his contributions to global learning in Wichita. |
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(Adapted from the obituary written by Randy Bush, Ph.D., past Executive
Director of the GLC, 1998-2002) |
