William J. Johnson, FASLA

Every now and then, someone comes into your life and changes it forever. Bill Johnson was one of those special individuals. It did not take long to sense one was in the great company of a gentle giant, a sage, and a creative spirit.

For Bill, every day was a gift to live out his favorite verse from Psalm 119: “Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law.” His patient observation was always coupled with his spiritual journey, where his vocation became a prayer.

In work and in life, Bill always encouraged the broader view - to take in the whole picture and all its details, before identifying what is intrinsically unique. His real message was not to simply see, but to see more.

From an early age, Bill relished discovering and drawing the world around him. Born in Lansing, Michigan, he loved wandering through the neighborhood alleys with his three-legged dog Skippy, running along the Grand River with his buddies, and watching the Oldsmobile plant and its formidable smokestacks powering the production line.

During his high school years, Bill and his parents lived on a farm just twenty miles outside the city. As a farmhand, he learned how to drive horses and how to work with the earth and the water. More importantly, this brief stint gave him the assurance that the direction he was considering in landscape architecture was right for him.

These transformative life experiences blending nature and the built environment, and his love for art and sketching, led Bill to a distinguished career in landscape architecture. A graduate of Michigan State University (B.L.A. ’54) and later the Harvard Graduate School of Design (M.L.A. ’57), Bill’s early interests focused on broad-scale land development-protection strategies. Inspired by one of Hideo Sasaki’s beliefs about how there are “no limits to scale,” Bill pioneered cross-disciplinary ways of working in fitting land development programs to sensitive environmental conditions.

In 1961, Bill formed Johnson, Johnson and Roy, Inc. (JJR) with his brother Carl Johnson, and their friend Clarence Roy. Their innovative “framework” approach from the 1963 University of Michigan Central Campus Plan became widely adopted in the planning and design professions, also known as the “framework” plan. Under their leadership, JJR (now SmithGroup) emerged as one of the most esteemed planning and design firms in the country.

Beyond JJR, Bill’s collaborative practice ranged across projects of regional and community planning urban design, long range campus development, natural resources, and historic preservation. He believed in living at the edges of the landscape architecture discipline, and was a masterful designer, development strategist, and facilitator – all in one.

An educator at heart, Bill was a Professor Emeritus at the University of Michigan where he taught for more than 30 years. During this time, he led the School of Natural Resources as Dean from 1975 to 1983 and saved it from potential elimination during the 1980s economic downturn. A Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects, Bill received the Society’s Gold Medal, its highest honor, in 1986. In recognition of his excellence and exceptional contributions to the planning and design field, Bill also received the Lifetime Achievement Award (Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture, 2019), the LAF Medal (Landscape Architecture Foundation, 2020), and the Distinguished Alumni Award (Harvard University Graduate School of Design, 2023).

A talented artist throughout his life, Bill thoroughly enjoyed sketching with pencils and chalk, and painting with watercolor and oils. His works reflect his extensive travels around the world and his remarkable ability to reveal the insights and richness of what the eye beholds through his soft tones and loose strokes.

Bill delighted in the small, simple joys of life. A cup of black coffee, a crispy chocolate-chip cookie, apple pie, or just a PB&J sandwich. He was especially proud of his Swedish heritage and Midwestern roots and will be remembered as a man of faith. Bill will be missed and leaves behind a big, empty space in all our hearts, and in the field of planning, design, and community building.

Bill is survived by wife, Charlotte Johnson, and by the mother of his children, Nancy, along with his children Cheryl Smith (Tom), Mark Johnson (Jane), Kevin Johnson (Sue); his stepchildren Mark Ouimet (Kelli) and Courtney Ouimet; nine grandchildren; seven great-grandchildren; and sister-in-law, Janet Johnson. He was preceded in death by his beloved parents, Ruben and Ethel Johnson, who encouraged him to sketch and taught him the gift of storytelling; his sister, Mary Lou Van De Venne (Joseph); and his brother, Carl D. Johnson.

A memorial service will be held at Pillar Church on Wednesday, October 9, at 1:00PM.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be sent to: Landscape Architecture Foundation, 1200 17th Street NW, Suite 210 Washington D.C. 20036.