JOHN ‘CURT’ JOHNSON, 93
Professor emeritus, Evanston. Died March 22.
In his 93 years, John “Curt” Johnson was fueled by a passion for reading, teaching and an overall curiosity about life.
He was an emeritus professor of English and former associate vice chancellor for academic affairs at the University of Illinois at Chicago. “He really loved teaching,” Carol Johnson said of her father. “The job was constant, and he was very dedicated.”
Long retired, Johnson died March 22 as a result of pneumonia due to a COVID-19 infection with coronary artery disease and chronic pulmonary disease as contributing factors.
He was a resident of the Three Crowns Park senior living community in Evanston, where he and his wife, Joan, had moved about a dozen years earlier after downsizing from their longtime home in Wilmette.
The couple were married nearly 60 years before her death in 2012.
The son of a Swedish immigrant who painted houses to support his family, Johnson grew up in Chicago and was inspired at a young age by the written word. He and his wife met at Northwestern University, where they were graduate students studying English and shared an appreciation for the arts.
Johnson, who went by the nickname “Curt,” from his middle name, loved the classical music of Mozart and Vivaldi, and the works of Victorian poets, especially Matthew Arnold.
The couple’s home was filled with books, music and flowers. Meals were served on a formally set table, and conversations were intellectual and passionate.
“They were very lovely,” said a niece, Jenifer Nollin. “I remember as a kid, I thought they both were so poised. I admired him so.”
Johnson wrote poetry throughout his life. His diverse hobbies included photography, politics, travel and gardening, especially tending to his beloved orchids.
His niece said he was tough, a stickler for proper vocabulary and grammar, but he also was “a real character” who was witty, generous and genuine. He once owned a parrot named Perry and had a unique, special talent of wiggling his ears without using his hands.
She recalled a conversation they once had about religion. Nollin said her uncle’s faith was tested with the loss of his only sibling — her mother — from cancer at an early age.
“I remember he said that he still believed in the power of love,” she said.
His daughter, Carol, recalled her father’s wisdom. There is a solution to every problem, he reminded her.
He retired from the university after a more than 30year career in 1984 after suffering a heart attack. The John Curtis Johnson award with $500 is still given out each spring to an outstanding first-year student in UIC’s honors college.
Later, as her parents aged, they decided to move into an apartment in the retirement community. Johnson said they loved it there, and her father downsized again into an assisted-living wing as his health and mobility declined.
Carol Johnson said it was a Three Crowns Park nurse who called her March 15 to tell her they had rushed her father, who had a fever and racing heart rate, to the hospital.
“I don’t really need to be here,” Johnson said her father told her when she arrived in the ER to be by his side. “They don’t need to make a fuss.”
He died a week later. Johnson is now quarantined until the end of the month, but she has not exhibited symptoms, she said.
She does not know how her father became infected. A few other Three Crowns Park residents also have tested positive, facility officials said.
Carol Johnson said she is thankful to the staff for the care they long gave her father.
Besides a daughter, Curt Johnson is survived by his son, Richard, who lives out of state.