Morris Dewey Johnson

Morris was a native New Yorker. He was born in Brooklyn in 1925, the only child of Dewey and Eva Johnson. His family moved to Manhattan when he was an infant and he grew up in Harlem. He attended Douglas Junior High School on 139th Street, and was proud to have Countee Cullen as one of his teachers. He graduated from the High School of Commerce and went into the US Navy in 1943, where he served until 1946. After the war, he worked in the U.S. Post Office and went to college. He graduated from Columbia University in 1954. He married Clara Woodall in 1954, and they were blessed with a son. Morris Jr. in 1957. After graduating from Columbia, he started a career with the NYC Housing Authority, where he became a project Manager. He and Clara resided in the Bronx. Clara passed in 1985.

Morris married Gloria Jones in 1987 at the Circus Circus casino in Las Vegas. They had met in a bridge class at the Harlem YMCA. They later became interested in playing blackjack as well as bridge. They became bridge partners and eventually life partners. After their marriage, he returned to Brooklyn, where Gloria lived and where he was born. Bridge was a major interest and activity in their lives. He also had a lifetime interest in law and earned a Paralegal Certificate from Lehman College after he retired. He also liked to write letters to the NY times, and was proud to see a number of them printed and one included in a section of the best NY Times letters of the year.