My high school photography teacher passed away last week and I have no idea where I'd be without him. I wasn't what you'd call a good student to say the least. My grade point average freshmen year of high school was 0.79 (yes, you read that right). The general consensus was I wouldn't amount to much. Doug Johnson was the first teacher to treat me like a person instead of just another lost cause. He applauded my photographs in front of the class when most people thought of me as just another burnout.
I'd already been fiddling around with cameras for a while before I enrolled in the photography class at Stevenson High School. I'd been looking forward to it all year, and in the first week, after I made my first print in the darkroom, I was hooked, and from then on I didn't want to do anything else. Doug saw my interest and allowed me to pursue it, pushing me in the right directions, letting me work late after school, showing me things that went well beyond the scope of the class. He took me under his wing and I never looked back. I took every photography course the school offered, eventually moving to independent studies, and by my last semester I was spending 4 out of 5 periods a day in the photo room, working on my own photographs, helping set up the darkrooms every day, loading and developing film for other students...
Those of us that spent enough time in the darkrooms came to know him as DJ instead of Mr. Johnson. One of the art teachers, also named Johnson, liked to refer to him as "The Real Mr. Johnson." He taught at Stevenson for 33 years, oddly enough retiring the same year I graduated. I suppose he'd had enough. He was quick with a joke and always happy to see you. He'll be missed to say the least.
God Speed DJ, we'll keep the lights out down here for you...
http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/freep/obituary.aspx?n=douglas-w-johnson&pid=181751009&fhid=15366