Barbara Joan "Bobbi" Johnson (born March 24, 1945) is an American former computer application engineer and beauty pageant titleholder who held the

Miss USA Miss USA is an American beauty pageant that has been held annually since 1952 to select the entrant from United States in the Miss Universe pageant. The Miss Universe Organization operated both pageants, as well as Miss Teen USA, until 2020. ...

1964 title and has competed in the

Miss Universe Miss Universe is an annual international major beauty pageant that is run by a Thailand and Mexican-based Miss Universe Organization.Natalie Tadena (July 2, 2015"Donald Trump's Miss USA Pageant Lands on Reelz Cable Channel". ''The Wall Stree ...

pageant. After winning the Miss District of Columbia USA crown, Johnson went on to become the first representative from the

District of Columbia Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and Federal district of the United States, federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from ...

to achieve the title of Miss USA, at age 19. She would be the only titleholder from the District until Shauntay Hinton won the crown in 2002. Johnson went on to compete in the Miss Universe 1964 pageant, where she made the semi-finals. Johnson later worked as an applications engineer in the computer department of

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) was an American Multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in 1892, incorporated in the New York (state), state of New York and headquartered in Boston. Over the year ...

to program GE 400-series and

DATANET-30 The DATANET-30, or DN-30 for short, was a computer manufactured by General Electric designed in 1961-1963 to be used as a communications computer. It was later used as a front-end processor for data communications. It became the first front end c ...

computer systems. She was interviewed about her career choice in the book ''Your Career in Computer Programming'' published in 1967. In the book, she explained how after winning her Miss USA title she was asked by reporters what career ambition she had: "I guess they thought I’d say something like modeling or becoming an actress, but I said the first thing that popped into my head: that I wanted to be a computer programmer…". The book also includes side-by-side photographs of her as Miss USA and at her console as an applications engineer a few years later. Bobbi later returned to school and would graduate magna cum laude from

North Central College North Central College is a private college in Naperville, Illinois. It is affiliated with the United Methodist Church and has 73 undergraduate majors of study, 17 minors, 25 graduate programs, and 4 certificate programs offered by four undergradu ...

, receiving a degree in accounting. After passing the

Certified Public Accountant Certified Public Accountant (CPA) is the title of qualified accountants in numerous countries in the English-speaking world. It is generally equivalent to the title of chartered accountant in other English-speaking countries. In the United Stat ...

exam she worked in tax accounting.

References

External links

Miss USA official website
* with actor

Marlon Brando Marlon Brando Jr. (April 3, 1924 – July 1, 2004) was an American actor. Widely regarded as one of the greatest cinema actors of the 20th century,''Movies in American History: An Encyclopedia''

1945 births American computer programmers Living people Miss Universe 1964 contestants Miss USA 1960s delegates Miss USA winners People from Alexandria, Virginia 20th-century American people {{WashingtonDC-stub