BYRON L. JOHNSON PAPERS

Byron Lindberg Johnson was born October 12, 1917, in Chicago, Illinois. His family moved to Wisconsin in 1927, where he graduated from Oconomowoc High School in 1933. He attended the University of Wisconsin in Madison, graduating in 1938 with a bachelor’s degree in economics and minors in political science and speech. Johnson married Catherine “Kay” Teter in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, October 22, 1938. They had three children: Steven, Christine and Eric.

In 1938, Johnson was hired by the Wisconsin State Board of Health as a statistician. In 1939, he took a job with the Wisconsin Public Service Commission as a rate analyst. In 1940, after he received his master’s degree in economics, Johnson returned to the statistician position with the Wisconsin Board of Health until 1942. Johnson was a pacifist who worked during World War II in the executive office of President Roosevelt serving as a fiscal analyst in the Bureau of the Budget, from 1942 until 1944, when he moved to the Social Security Administration. He worked as a Social Security economist until 1947, when he received his doctorate in economics from the University of Wisconsin.

Johnson moved to Denver, Colorado, in 1947 to accept the position of Assistant (and later Associate) Professor of Economics at the University of Denver. He co-founded and served as first president (1948-1951) of the Mile High Housing Association, which created South Dahlia Lane, the nation’s first Federal Housing Administration (FHA) insured management cooperative. His wife, Kay, also served as President of the Association. Johnson's interest in issues effecting senior citizens culminated in the creation of Senior Housing of Colorado, Inc., which combined the efforts of four churches to subsidize apartment style living for people over 50.

After narrowly losing a race for the Colorado House of Representatives in 1952, Johnson was elected to the Colorado state legislature representing Arapahoe County in 1954. Defeated in his bid for reelection in 1956, he worked for two years as administrative assistant to Colorado Governor Steve McNichols, taking a leave of absence from University of Denver until 1957 when he resigned to run for Congress. Johnson’s campaign in 1958 was successful and he took his seat in the 86th U.S. Congress on January 3, 1959. He served only one term, representing the 2nd district of Colorado. He attended the Democratic convention in 1960 that nominated John F. Kennedy for president and was also a delegate to the 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago. In 1960, Johnson received the Carle Whitehead Award from the Colorado Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. Johnson worked for the Agency for International Development from its inception in 1961 until 1965.

Hired as a professor at the University of Colorado Denver Center (UCD) in 1965, Johnson became Director of the Center for Urban Affairs. Transportation issues were a prominent part of Johnson’s interests while a legislator and as chairman of the Mayor’s Committee on Mass Transit. In 1976, he co-founded the Public Transportation Council. Johnson continued to teach at the University of Colorado Denver Center until his retirement in 1984. In 1970, he was elected to the first of two six-year terms on the Colorado University Board of Regents, two years later he was unsuccessful in a bid for a seat in the 93rd Congress. He served on the board of the Regional Transportation District (RTD) from 1982-1984 and was elected vice-chairman in 1983, and chairman in 1984.

He alos became a professor emeritus at the University of Colorado. Byron Johnson died on January 6, 2000.