Johnson, Paul Wesley 1941 - 2021
JOHNSON, OSLUND, HORRIGAN, YOUNG, KWEKU
Posted By: Joy Moore (email)
Date: 3/2/2021 at 20:21:56
Everybody is a wonderin' what and where they all came from
Everybody is a worryin' 'bout where
They're gonna go when the whole thing's done
But no one knows for certain and so it's all the same to me
I think I'll just let the mystery be – Iris DementSurrounded by his family in the post-and-beam farmhouse room he designed and commissioned the Amish to build, on 15 Feb 2021 Paul Wesley Johnson headed toward St Peter’s pearly gates, having been nudged along by a 2012 tussle with his John Deere 620.
All Paul’s grandparents, Elof and Jennie, August and Hannah, emigrated from Sweden to the US in the 1890s, so Paul could never fathom why others (equally descended from newcomers) could fail to see how much of our country’s wealth is a result of immigrants’ ferment and striving (and owed to the Native Americans and Blacks on whose land and labor it was built). Paul was born in Oakland, CA on 10 Jun 1941 to Wallace Johnson (a minister) and Rachel Oslund (a homemaker) and grew up in Beresford, SD and Oak Lawn, IL.
Freedom's just another word for nothin' left to lose
Nothin', it ain't nothin' honey, if it ain't free
And feelin' good was easy, Lord, when he sang the blues
You know feelin' good was good enough for me,
Good enough for me and my Bobby McGee – Janis JoplinBy his own description a “nondescript” student (though a bit of a daredevil pilot), Paul left the Illinois Institute of Aviation to join one of the very first Peace Corps groups in 1962 and served in Ghana. By the time he returned to the US two years later, he’d heard the call of the wild and began studying at the University of Michigan’s School of Natural Resources, where he would eventually earn his master’s degree in forestry. To support himself, he interviewed to wash dishes for a group of women at the International House dormitory. The dorm director, Pat, who was also just back from the Peace Corps in the Philippines, judged his housekeeping skills adequate enough to marry him in 1965.
After a stint in the US Forest Service, Paul and Pat returned to Africa, with both teaching at Ghana’s School of Forestry in Sunyani while Pat birthed their first child, Eric Kweku, in Berekum. After doctoral studies took them to Costa Rica, they returned to the U of MI and used its library to divine that the best place in the world to live is The Driftless. When the right farm became available in Winneshiek County in 1974, friends and family pitched in to help them make the down payment. Paul milked Jerseys while Pat taught social work, taking a year off to manage Luther College’s study-abroad program in Nottingham in 1981. While they coaxed from the land a variety of flora and fauna—Christmas trees, soybeans, sweet corn, grapes, apples, eggs, lambs, and trees (everywhere!)—when asked what they raised on the farm, Paul’s reply was always “kids!”
Peaches on the shelf
Potatoes in the bin
Supper’s ready, everybody come on in
Taste a little of the summer
You can taste a little of the summer
Grandma’s put it all in jars – Greg BrownA favorite family story was the surprise of returning from a family backpacking trip out west to find Paul on the ballot for State Representative! During his three Iowa House terms he found a new calling: assembling bipartisan support for groundbreaking sustainable agriculture and conservation legislation. Landmark achievements of Paul and his colleagues included the 1987 Groundwater Protection Act (including creation of the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at ISU); the 1989 Resource Enhancement and Protection (REAP) Act; and the 1990 Iowa Energy Act. That work gained national attention, resulting in Paul’s 1988 invitation to join the National Academy of Sciences’ Board on Agriculture and then to Clinton appointing him in 1994 to run the 13,000-employee Soil Conservation Service (SCS) in Washington, DC.
Paul brought the spirit of Aldo Leopold and Rachel Carson to USDA. He reinvigorated the agency’s culture, thanked employees continually for serving the nation’s farmers and ranchers, and appointed many women and minorities to positions of leadership. He worked with colleagues to rename the SCS the Natural Resources Conservation Service, and reminded all that the agency’s mission included the entire community: soil, water, air, plants, animals, and humans (SWAPA+H!). During his tenure NRCS programs become more holistic, including the flagship Environmental Quality Incentives Program and the National Conservation Buffer Initiative. In the landmark publication “Geography of Hope,” Paul called on Americans to understand the nation’s working lands as the foundation of our economic and environmental health, writing: A land comprised of wilderness islands at one extreme and urban islands at the other, with vast food and fiber factories in between, does not constitute a geography of hope. But private land need not be devoted to a single-purpose enterprise. With a broader understanding of land and our place within the landscape, our Nation’s farms, ranches, and private forest land can and do serve the multiple functions that we and all other life depend upon.
Having tired of the national stage, Paul ran the Iowa DNR for Governor Vilsack in the early 2000s. After an unsuccessful run for the US House of Representatives in 2004, he retired to Decorah to share his experiences and networks by advising and mentoring environmental advocates and policymakers throughout the US, serving on various boards and commissions, giving inspiring speeches, writing book introductions and editorials, visiting his kids in Nicaragua, Sweden, France, China, and Australia, and watching his six granddaughters grow. In his later years he enjoyed weaving music into his essays for progressive Iowa “town hall” web site Bleeding Heartland.
Paul loved being outdoors. On the farm he blanketed eroding hillsides with trees and converted cropland from corn to perennial ground cover (hay, pasture, and prairie). The family’s northern-Minnesota-wilderness cabin was a sanctuary for family, fishing, friendship, and wonder. Paul’s building instincts merged with his forester’s heart added locally-cut timber to two rebuilt old log cabins to produce a beautiful retirement house. He and Pat took the family to visit many national parks to help his children and grandchildren appreciate US public lands. He and Pat also took numerous winter camping trips in their little Airstream to America’s south, exploring a variety of wild lands, taking amazing hikes, and visiting friends.
I see trees so green, red roses too
I see them bloom for me and you
And I think to myself what a wonderful world
I see skies so blue and clouds so white
The bright blessed day, the dark sacred night
And I think to myself what a wonderful world – Louis ArmstrongPaul is survived by his wife, their three children—Eric (Brenda Horrigan) in Sydney, Andy (Emily Young) on the farm outside of Decorah, and Annika in Gothenburg—six granddaughters: Alissa (New York) and Kiara (Carleton College); Helen (Vassar College), Leila, and Elsa (Decorah); Linnea (Luther)—and brother Dave (Marianne) Johnson (St Paul). His sister Betty and brother Tom (Ginger) took wing before him.
Paul’s anatomy bequest to the U of MN’s m-school was facilitated by Fjelstul Funeral Home, on whose internet site’s “guestbook” those who knew him can leave tributes. His Wikipedia page could use beefing up too. A celebration of life for family, friends, colleagues, and fellow travelers will be organized in the Decorah area in summer 2021. Those wishing to honor Paul further are invited to 1) plant a forest or a prairie, or take part in stewarding one, somehow, somewhere; 2) read Leopold’s 1939 essay “Farmer as Conservationist,” and ask your closest farmer friend to do so as well; 3) contribute to one of his favorite organizations: the Leopold Foundation (aldoleopold.org), Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation (inhf.org).
So, thank you for the honor of your company
The music was as sweet as the good red wine
Thanks for the company
And thanks for the harmony
I'm here to say the honor was all mine – Tom Paxton
Winneshiek Obituaries maintained by Bruce Kuennen.
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