Former fine arts dean dies

James Johnson, former dean of the School of Fine Arts, died Oct 8. He was 92.

Johnson, who lived in Damariscotta, Maine, came to UConn in 1972 as dean of fine arts and professor of art history. He served as dean until 1978, and continued to teach until his retirement in 1986.

David Woods, dean of the School of Fine Arts, praises Johnson’s scholarship and devotion to his students. “He really appreciated the students,” Woods says.

“Still active in his 80’s, he’d attend the annual awards ceremony [the James R. Johnson Art History Award for outstanding undergraduate art history majors at UConn was established in 1986], and meet with the students. He was very passionate about that.”

Woods also notes that Johnson built the foundation for the School through the curriculum.

Roger Crossgrove, emeritus professor of art, says Johnson was a “very disciplined and fair administrator. I enjoyed working with him.”

Johnson is remembered as a gentleman, a scholar, and a great storyteller. He loved music and was a gifted pianist.

Originally from Pennsylvania, he graduated from Harvard College in 1941, and received his Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1960.

He served in the U.S. Army for four years during World War II, and later continued his studies at the Sorbonne, in France, where he photographed art and architecture.

In 1950, he accomplished a major project: He photographed the 12th-century stained glass windows of Chartres Cathedral in France by means of a 70-foot scaffold erected inside the cathedral.