By Dr. Joe Gilliland
I am writing this in memory of Don Johnson, who recently passed away at his home in Tucson. One of the founding faculty at Cochise College, Don and his wife Cathi, who was College librarian, were residents of Bisbee, but when he joined the faculty, Don and his family made their home in Douglas.
Don Johnson, 1929-2016, was a faculty member and dean at Cochise College from 1964-1989.
By almost any measure, Don deserved the title of “Master Teacher,” but then so did many in that founding faculty. I met Don that first day of faculty orientation in September 1964 and was immediately taken by his wide range of knowledge in his field, our field as it turned out, English composition and literature. He was the only person I had ever met who had taught at every level, from elementary grades through high school and college. He and I had offices in the faculty office building, and we met often to discuss what and how we should or should not teach our freshman comp classes; later, as the college grew, we often talked about what works of literature we should cover, he in world literature and I in British literature.
At the end of the second year Don took over as chairman of communications and languages and I as chairman of humanities and fine arts. We worked together closely, always conferring and sharing faculty. When the college first opened, both Don and I taught sections of remedial (more recently, developmental) English and worked with students who arrived at college not fully prepared for college English. His background and knowledge of modern transformational grammar was extensive and highly useful in setting up the outline for the course; it was Don who brought the county’s high school English teachers to the college to discuss their aims and methods of teaching English in order for us to work more effectively with the experienced teachers of the area. It was Don who insisted the college hire a reading instructor to prepare students for the ardors of their college-level assignments. As chairman, Don oversaw the hiring of excellent new faculty, two of whom became outstanding instructors, Mary Lee Shelden and Larry Gunter.
Many of us early college instructors recall that Don was one of the founders of the TGIF Club, an extremely “un”organized group that usually met Friday after class at the old Coney Island in Douglas to discuss, unofficially, the college’s needs and purposes, academically and non-academically. He insisted such meetings help establish a collegial environment. Later, when it appeared that the summer would pass without the presence of a dean of liberal arts on campus, the members of the Cochise College Professional Association voted to recommend to Dr. Jack Netcher, president, that he present Don’s name to the Governing Board for the position of acting dean. They accepted our suggestion, and when the new president arrived in the fall he retained Don as dean of liberal arts. It was the first time in my experience that a faculty had chosen on its own its own dean. Don was that highly regarded by his colleagues. Later the president of the college made him dean of special projects, which translates as chief grants writer. Don’s grants successfully established several important academic programs, such as the one making Cochise an outstanding ESL college.
We division chairs found him to be an ideal dean of liberal arts, a sturdy bridge supporting and backing the faculty and students in dealing with the administration. And later Don was an important factor in whatever success the college had in the experiment in administration called “Grassroots System” that guided the college for almost a full year sans president or deans.
When Don returned full time to the classroom he voluntarily took upon himself as his main chore the teaching of developmental English classes, surely the most demanding of all teaching tasks in the community college.
Although I arrived at Cochise that first year with more than nine years college teaching experience, I learned much from Don about how to teach the remedial or “developmental” students. We were all impressed how well he worked with students during the years of undergraduate unrest that gripped many colleges and universities in the U.S. As a dean, his tact and diplomacy and his respect for students never allowed student protest or controversy to upset the learning atmosphere at Cochise. Don spent his last years with the college as an instructor on the Sierra Vista Campus.
He and I did not become close friends until his last years at the college, but I recall that as colleagues we worked very closely. I do recall how generous he was to me when he was on sabbatical finishing his Ph. D. in higher education at ASU in Tempe. That spring, as I was facing a week of comprehensive doctoral exams at ASU, Don invited me to stay at his apartment in Tempe, giving me space to spread my books and cram for those most important examinations and a place to sleep undisturbed and relaxed, while constantly assuring me by erasing all my doctoral doubts.
When he retired in 1989, Don’s colleagues nominated him for the honor of Faculty Emeritus. Taken for all in all, he was a Master Teacher, a colleague and friend of wit and wide intellect.
Dr. Joe Gilliland is a founding faculty member at Cochise College.