Richard St Clair Johnson (6 June 1929 – 31 August 2019) was an Australian academic and senior public servant.

Background and early life

Dick Johnson was born in Singapore, one of four children born to Australian parents. His father worked in the insurance industry in Asia. He attended secondary schooling at the Jesuit Riverview College. In 1946 Johnson began a double honours degree in Greek and Latin at the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD) is a public university, public research university in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in both Australia and Oceania. One of Australia's six sandstone universities, it was one of the ...

Career

Johnson was Professor of Classics at the

Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public university, public research university and member of the Group of Eight (Australian universities), Group of Eight, located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton, A ...

from 1962 to 1984. In his first year in the role, he established the

Australian National University Classics Museum The Australian National University Classics Museum is a small museum in Canberra. It was established at the Australian National University (ANU) in 1962 as a teaching aid to help students in the Canberra region learn about the ancient Greek and R ...

so that Canberra students could learn about ancient Greek and Roman objects. In April 1984, Johnson was appointed

Secretary A secretary, administrative assistant, executive assistant, personal secretary, or other similar titles is an individual whose work consists of supporting management, including executives, using a variety of project management, program evalu ...

of the

Department of Education An education ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for education. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of Education, Department of Education, and Ministry of Pub ...

(later, Education and Youth Affairs). He left his role in January 1985, succeeded by Helen Williams, the first woman to become a departmental secretary in the Australian Government.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Johnson, Dick Secretaries of the Australian Government Education Department 1929 births 2019 deaths People educated at Saint Ignatius' College, Riverview University of Sydney alumni Academic staff of the Australian National University