Hawk, Ray

Charles Ellicott Johnson (1920-1969), accountant and university administrator, was born on September 7, 1920 in Worland, Wyoming. He graduated from the University of Minnesota in 1942 with a degree in accounting and business administration. After serving in World War II, he returned to the University of Minnesota to earn his MBA in 1948 and his PhD in 1952. Johnson came to the University of Oregon in 1952 as an Associate Professor in Business Administration and became a full Professor in 1957. In 1959, he was appointed as Head of the Department of Accounting and Business Statistics, and then became Dean of the College of Liberal Arts in 1963. Johnson was appointed as Acting President of the University of Oregon in 1968.

Johnson’s presidency was defined by several controversies, including the grape boycott in the dormitories to protest farming and labor conditions, the athletes who were disciplined for refusing to cut their hair, and the obscenities printed in the Emerald. During his tenure, Navy recruiters were harassed by activists, a shanty town was set up on the campus lawn, and there were numerous protests over the Vietnam War, civil rights, and freedoms. Charles E. Johnson was killed in an automobile accident on June 17, 1969. Ken Metzler’s book, Confrontation: The Destruction of a College President, published in 1973, investigated the circumstances surrounding Johnson’s death, particularly Johnson’s psychological state at the time of the accident.

...