Charles G. Johnson '71, Oldest Grad, Dies at 99
DARTMOUTH'S OLDEST living alumnus, Charles Gordon Johnson '71 of Pasadena, Calif., died February 5 at the age of 99. Funeral services were held February 8 at the Neighborhood Church, Pasadena, of which he was a charter member.
Mr. Johnson, who would have reached his 100 th birthday on July 4, had been in fairly good health except for failing eyesight, and the news of his death reached the College without warning. He kept in regular communication with the College, describing his simple, quiet existence, with short walks, the radio and a "book-talking machine" providing his greatest pleasures.
Mr. Johnson was born at Northfield, Mass., on July 4, 1848, the son of Henry and Martha Wright Johnson. Soon after his graduation from Dartmouth in 1871 he became a railroad construction engineer in lowa and then moved farther west, engaging in banking, lumbering, agriculture and livestock raising. After the death of his wife in St. Paul in 1902, he moved to Pasadena and there continued in agriculture and livestock business in the Imperial Valley. In 1923, at the age of 75, when most men would think of themselves as retired, he entered the employ of one of the large banks in Los Angeles and continued there until failing eyesight forced him to retire at 90. In his last years he made his home in Pasadena with Miss Edna Gerry and her mother.
Mr. Johnson was a life member of the Minnesota Historical Society and a charter member of both the University Club and Markham Club in Pasadena. Before blindness halted his work he was greatly interested in genealogy and had prepared about 250 pages of manuscript showing the complete ancestral line of each of his parents from 1630. Among his ancestors were John Johnson of Roxbury, Mass., 1630, and Sir John Wright, 1480-1551, Essex County, England.
Mr. Johnson was married in 1874 to Miss Mary Walker, who died in 1902. His second marriage, in 1923, was to Mrs. Edith Alden Daniels, who died a few years ago. The only survivor is a step-daughter, Mrs. Frank A. Mac Master of Los Altos, Calif. Mr. Johnson's brother was Roger S. Johnson '74, who died in 1939.
Upon receiving news of Mr. Johnson's death, the College announced that Frank P. Shepard '75 of Dover, N. H., had become Dartmouth's oldest living alumnus, but this was quickly corrected when it was learned that Mr. Shepard had died in December 1944. Since that time no College mail had been returned and annual birthday greetings had brought no word of his death. The oldest living alumnus is actually Dr. Hervey A. Tarbell '78, 94, of West Allis, Wis.
