Howard Wesley Johnson (July 2, 1922 – December 12, 2009) was an American educator. He served as dean of the

MIT Sloan School of Management The MIT Sloan School of Management (MIT Sloan or Sloan) is the business school of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT Sloan offers bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degree programs, ...

between 1959 and 1966, president of

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the m ...

between 1966 and 1971, and chairman of the MIT Corporation (the university's board of trustees) from 1971 to 1983.Dennis Hevesi, "Howard W. Johnson, 87, M.I.T. President," ''The New York Times'', December 22, 2009, p. B11. He was a member of both the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, a ...

and the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...

Education and early career

Johnson graduated in 1943 with a bachelor's degree in business from Central College in Chicago. He served in the Army in Europe during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, and returned to earn a master's degree in economics at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...

, where he taught from 1948 to 1955. He joined the MIT faculty as an associate professor of management in 1955.

Selected works

''Holding the Center: Memoirs of a Life in Higher Education''
MIT Press, 2001.

References

1922 births 2009 deaths Presidents of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology United States Army personnel of World War II MIT Sloan School of Management faculty University of Chicago alumni Members of the American Philosophical Society 20th-century American academics {{US-academic-administrator-1920s-stub