John Alvin Johnson (1915–2005) was an American lawyer and businessman who was General Counsel of the Air Force from 1952 to 1958; General Counsel of NASA from 1958 to 1963; and an executive at

COMSAT COMSAT (Communications Satellite Corporation) is a global telecommunications company based in the United States. By 2007, it had branches in Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, Venezuela and several other countries in the Americas. A ...

from 1963 to 1980, having become CEO by the time of his retirement.

Biography

John Alvin Johnson was born in Milwaukee in 1915 to a family of Norwegian descent.He was raised in

Hammond, Indiana Hammond ( ) is a city in Lake County, Indiana. It is part of the Chicago metropolitan area, and the only city in Indiana to border Chicago. First settled in the mid-19th century, it is one of the oldest cities of northern Lake County. As of the ...

. He was educated at DePauw University, receiving a bachelor's degree in 1937. He then attended the University of Chicago Law School, receiving a J.D. degree in 1940. During his time at law school, he met and married his wife, Harriet Nelson, an undergraduate student at the University of Chicago. Johnson practiced law in Chicago until 1943, when he was drafted into the United States Navy. During World War II, he was a naval officer on board the USS ''Robert H. Smith'' (DM-23). After the war, he studied at Harvard University, receiving a master's degree, and then moved to Washington, D.C. in 1946, joining the United States Department of State as an assistant for international security affairs. Johnson joined the Office of the General Counsel of the Air Force in 1949. From 1952 until October 7, 1958, he was General Counsel of the Air Force. He was then the General Counsel of NASA from 1958 to 1963.NASA Profile
/ref> In 1949, Johnson moved to

Falls Church, Virginia Falls Church is an independent city (United States), independent city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the population was 14,658. Falls Church is included in the Wash ...

, and won election to the Falls Church School Board. In the wake of '' Brown v. Board of Education'', in 1955, Johnson argued in favor of rapid

school desegregation School integration in the United States is the process (also known as desegregation) of ending race-based segregation within American public and private schools. Racial segregation in schools existed throughout most of American history and rema ...

in Falls Church. He opposed Sen. Harry F. Byrd's call for

massive resistance Massive resistance was a strategy declared by U.S. Senator Harry F. Byrd Sr. of Virginia and his brother-in-law James M. Thomson, who represented Alexandria in the Virginia General Assembly, to get the state's white politicians to pass laws and p ...

to school desegregation. However, he was unable to prevail and Falls Church schools remained segregated. He left the Falls Church School Board in 1958, when he moved to Arlington County, Virginia, when he took his job at NASA. Johnson left government service in 1963, joining

, as director of international arrangements. He was promoted to Vice President in 1964 and Senior Vice President in 1973. He later served as CEO of COMSAT until he retired in the year 1980. Johnson died in the summer of 2005.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Johnson, John Alvin 1915 births 2005 deaths General Counsels of the United States Air Force DePauw University alumni University of Chicago Law School alumni Harvard University alumni