Harold Hunt Johnson

Hal was born on September 20, 1929 in Gary, Indiana, to Violet Pratt Johnson and Harold McKinley Johnson. He received a Bachelor's degree from San Jose State University in 1951, a Master's and a Ph. D. from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1956 and 1957, all in Mathematics. He was a member of both Phi Beta Kappa and Sigma Xi honorary societies. During the Korean War, he was a 2nd Lt. in the US Air Force, from 1952 to 1953. He remained on inactive duty with the Air Force, serving time with the Air Force Office of Scientific Research in Washington, D.C. He was also awarded several contracts from the AFOSR to do research during the academic year. He retired as a Captain from the Air Force Reserve. After receiving his Ph. D. he taught at Stanford University, Princeton University and the University of Washington, where he received tenure. While on sabbatical leave from the University of Washington during 1967-68 he was a visiting scholar at the Courant Institute of New York University and Columbia University. He resigned from his professorship at the University of Washington in order to accommodate his wife who had an appointment with the government in Washington, D.C. During this time he was a professor at Washington Technical Institute and a visiting professor at George Washington University. Starting in 1975 he was a Mathematician with the US Geological Survey. After returning to academia he was a consultant with the Survey for about a decade. While in Washington he discovered a mistake the Survey was making in its very important mapping service and explained how to do the transformations correctly. He participated in several international mathematics conferences including Summer Conferences on Global Differential Geometry and the every-4-year very large conferences, including one in Moscow. After the four years in Washington, D.C. he chose to teach at a Christian college in greater Chicago. He retired from Trinity University after 15 years of teaching and research in 1991. He maintained a close contact with many of his students from this era of his life. From 1977 until 1981 he was a consultant for Occidental Research Corporation. While in their employ he received several patents. Dr. Johnson published several dozen mathematics papers in peer reviewed journals on topics in differential geometry, exterior differential forms, partial and ordinary differential equations, including chaos and strange attractors. On the more applied side he did research on, among other topics, inverse problems and algorithms applicable to CAT scan. When teaching engineering students, he was noted for choosing problems of interest to them. At age 60 he earned a pilot's license. After retiring he flew his little Cessna around the US and finally gave it to a group that serves missionaries. He took up oil painting shortly before retirement and developed into an accomplished portrait artist. Hal and Betsy moved to Austin in 1997. He was an ordained elder in the Presbyterian Church and a member of Covenant Presbyterian Church. For many years he maintained a blog for a group of men reading 2-3 chapters of the Bible each day. He is survived by his wife of 51 years, Betsy Ancker-Johnson and daughters Ruth Pettigrew Johnson, Marti Hunt Gab, and one son David Harold Johnson. He is also survived by six grandchildren, Violet Pettigrew Pendzuk, Nicholas Ancker Gab, Owen Hunt Gab, Trevor Jackson Gab, Corey Johnson, Amanda Marie Fipps, and a son-in-law Berthold Josef Gab. He was preceded in death by a son, Paul Ancker Johnson. A celebration of his life and resurrection will be held on Thursday, October 1, 2009, at 2pm in the Sanctuary of Covenant Presbyterian Church. In lieu of flowers donations may be made to: endpoverty.org, 7910 Woodmont Ave, Ste 800, Bethesda MD 20814.