2021 Gumbo final - Book - Page 96
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from student to dean
D
ean Martin Johnson of the Manship School of Mass Communication passed away the night of Sept. 28, the
University announced on Sept. 29. Johnson, 50, died of a heart attack in his sleep, as was later confirmed by
Interim President Thomas Galligan in a press conference.
Johnson’s life was full of accomplishments. He started his career in journalism by serving as editor-in-chief of the Reveille
and earning a bachelor’s degree from the Manship School in 1991. He went on to earn his master’s and doctorate in political
science from Rice University before becoming department chair and professor at University of California, Riverside, and
eventually returning to Manship as sr. chair in political communication and dean.
In between his various university positions, he wrote a book, “Changing Minds or Changing Channels: Partisan News
in an Age of Choice,” which was co-winner of the 2014 Goldsmith Book Prize awarded by the Harvard Kennedy School
Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy. He had his work printed in American Journal of Political Science,
Journal of Politics and Human Communication Research among other scholarly publications, and his research was supported
by the National Science Foundation, the John Randolph and Dora Haynes Foundation and Time-sharing Experiments for the
Social Sciences.
But students and faculty agree that Johnson’s life was more than an extensive resume or prestigious awards. He was the
heartbeat of the Manship School – “a loss we’ll feel forever,” in the words of Associate Dean Josh Grimm.
Grimm sent out an email Tuesday morning informing students of Johnson’s passing the night before.
“Our entire LSU Family mourns the loss of Dean Johnson, who was a wonderful colleague, friend, father and husband,”
Galligan said in a statement. “We will be forever grateful for Dean Johnson’s countless contributions to the Manship School
and LSU, and we will miss him terribly. Please keep Martin’s wife, Sherri, an LSU Department of History faculty member, and
their son in your thoughts and prayers.”
Johnson’s long involvement with the Manship School began in his early childhood. He grew up less than a mile away from
the University and his parents were both teachers with LSU degrees. In an article from the Fall 2019 LSU Alumni Magazine,
Johnson recalled spending much of his childhood on LSU’s campus, swimming at the Huey P. Long Fieldhouse pool, meeting
friends at the Student Union or eating at Godfather’s Pizza on Chimes Street. He said he always knew he wanted to attend
LSU, and those plans came to fruition when he received the Chancellor’s Alumni Scholarship, now known as the President’s
Alumni Scholarship, for his academic performance at Baton Rouge Magnet High School.
He continued his success during his college years as the editor-in-chief of the Reveille, an announcer for KLSU and the
editor of the student magazine.
When Johnson was the editor-in-chief of the Reveille, mass communication and political science professor Nathan
Kalmoe said, Johnson spearheaded a joint weekly issue between the Reveille and the newspaper at Southern University, The
Southern Digest. Kalmoe said Johnson valued greater collaboration between the two schools divided by white supremacy.
“Local white business owners threatened to pull their ads from the Reveille because they didn’t want newspaper
integration, but Martin didn’t back down,” Kalmoe said.
Johnson also used his position as editor-in-chief to advocate for an African-American cultural resource center on campus.
“There is no reasonable doubt this campus needs a place for cultural interaction,” Johnson wrote in a spring 1991
editorial. “We would all benefit from the fellowship students of all races would find there.”
After graduating Manship, Johnson attended graduate school at Rice. There, he reunited with Sherri Franks, an old friend
from his undergraduate years at LSU, according to the LSU Alumni Magazine. They married, and shortly after Johnson was
offered an assistant partnership in the political science program at the University of California, Riverside. The two moved
there and Franks accepted a position in the religious studies department.
Eventually, Johnson found his way back to Louisiana and the Manship School after being offered the Kevin P. Reilly Sr.
Chair in Political Communication, where he remained until he was appointed dean in 2018.
When asked in the LSU Alumni Magazine article why he chose to leave California, he gave this response:
“We live in paradise, that’s true, but this is LSU.”
Johnson’s promotion to Manship dean was effective July 1, 2018, according to an email from then-Provost Richard Koubek
to the Manship School staff. Johnson replaced Jerry Ceppos, who held the position since 2011.