Herbert O. Johnson was born May 4, 1908 in Minneapolis but grew up on a farm near Foreston, in Mille Lacs county. He graduated from Macalester College in St. Paul in 1930 and then pursued graduate work at the University of Minnesota for three years. He began teaching math and biology in Aitkin during his graduate school years and eventually became an assistant principal. Before his appointment as executive secretary of the Minnesota Republican Party in 1955, Johnson served as the executive secretary of the student YMCA on the University of Minnesota farm campus and as youth program secretary and executive secretary of the Midway YMCA in St. Paul. In 1949 he became executive secretary of the Winona YMCA, where he served until he was tapped for the position with the Republican Party. Johnson was a newcomer to politics in 1955, but his appointment as executive secretary marked the beginning of a long career with the Minnesota Republican Party.
After retiring from his leadership post with the Republican Party in 1973, he began a second career as a volunteer. Much of his work was as an advocate for the elderly, including a position from 1978 to 1982 as Governor Al Quie's liaison to the Minnesota Board on Aging and other elderly groups. In 1981, he was one of several Minnesota delegates at the White House Conference on Aging. In 1988 he was selected Ramsey County's Outstanding Senior Citizen and was subsequently named one of Minnesota's two Outstanding Senior Citizens.
Herbert O. Johnson married and had three children.
From the guide to the Herbert O. Johnson papers, 1954-1988., (Minnesota Historical Society)
