Emeritus professor of philosophy Fred Johnson passed away on March 16, 2024. Johnson joined the department to lead the logic program in 1967, after doing graduate work at Harvard University, Rutgers University, University of Virginia, and earning a Ph.D. in philosophy from Ohio State University.

 

Logician, Mentor, and Friend

Johnson’s main area of scholarly research was in applying the tools of modern mathematical logic to Aristotle’s modal syllogisms. Much of his research has been published in front-ranking scholarly journals devoted to scholarship in advancing original work in formal logic.

Former colleague Jane Kneller describes Johnson as an excellent logician, a thoughtful and supportive colleague, and a beloved teacher. Kneller shares, “When I was a new faculty member, he was a great mentor and during the years I was chair he was a helpful sounding board.  The time we spent with him and [his wife] dear Toni is something I will remember and treasure always.”

For Michael Losonsky, Johnson was a cherished colleague and friend. He describes the first time they met during his interview at CSU, “My first memory of Fred that never faded was his driving me to the Best Western after the last dinner with the department, driving around a bit so we could talk more about logic and philosophy, and he told me that we would be great colleagues and that he felt the interview went well. We were fantastic colleagues, and Fred became my best friend at CSU.  I miss him very much.”

More than friends, the Johnsons became like family to Kneller, Losonsky, and their two young children during their shared years in Fort Collins. “For over a decade our family would celebrate Christmas Day at their beautiful house with dinner, singing Christmas carols, playing instruments, and exchanging gifts. Those are cherished memories. We cross-country skied together, went camping, fishing, exploring, and just enjoying the mountains Fred loved so much.”

In addition to his status as a much-loved philosopher, colleague, and friend, fellow emeritus professor Pat McKee describes Johnson as “smashingly handsome” and a much sought after catch by single women looking to make a match. McKee explains that Johnson “chose to remain single well into his middle age before finding his true soulmate in Toni.  With his good looks and seemingly endless series of adventures, romantic and otherwise, in our early years I often thought of him as the philosophy department’s only answer to that James Bond style of ‘cool’ – definitely ‘alpha,’ but modest and understated.”

 

Love of Nature and Adventure

Johnson grew up in rural Pennsylvania and learned to love hiking and camping in the surrounding mountains. It was a passion he retained and shared with his close friends for the rest of his life, influencing his decision to live in Colorado after completing his education.

McKee recounts his outdoor adventures with Johnson: “Possibly the one quality that set Fred apart for me was his unusually robust love of adventure. It is well represented by his way of behaving in the mountains.  Winter and summer, we took many, sometimes multi-day camping trips together, and inevitably Fred would want to trek somewhere far off any established trail, get lost, and then find the way back by orienteering with a compass.  It often made me nervous, but I learned to trust his skills, and he always found the way.”

Holmes Rolston was also a frequent hiking companion. Rolston shares, “Fred and I did numerous hikes in Colorado, also in the Medicine Bow Snowy Range in Wyoming.  We often trudged through the streams to see what was in them.” Rolston inherited the “first-class” binocular microscopes that Johnson purchased to get a closer look at the streams’ inhabitants. He also recounts how he would frequently run into Johnson when he took his grandchildren hiking at Lory State Park.

In Johnson’s travels through northern Colorado and several states, he observed and documented wildflowers native to each area, making an extensive photographic and narrative record of the scientific and common names of each species he observed.  He has left an online catalogue of this work, which sees steady traffic of both professional and amateur wildflower enthusiasts.

Johnson’s love of adventure spanned the world outside Colorado. He possessed a strong love of travel and spent sabbatical years at Cambridge and Oxford in England and had extended stays in Russia, China, Brazil, Patagonia and Eastern Europe, as well as other international locations.

 

Gifted Musician

In addition to philosopher and adventurer, Johnson was an exceptional musician.  McKee claims that Johnson was consistently modest about his many talents, though “he did allow himself expression of pride in the gift of perfect pitch.”

McKee shares an anecdote from when Johnson first came to CSU: “He applied to join the Fort Collins Symphony, which at that time (late 1960s) was excellent and highly respected. After auditioning Fred was immediately assigned first violin position – quite an honor, I thought, for such a young musician in that orchestra. Fred played in the orchestra for maybe ten years, but eventually moved on to more challenging venues.”

Johnson proved to be a proficient jazz and classical bassist. He also played the viola de gamba, often performing in public recitals.  He excelled in violin, playing privately and with string trios, string quartets, piano trios, and various quintets, sextets and octets throughout Northern Colorado and around the U.S.  After retiring he devoted much of his time to learning the classical chamber music tradition.

Johnson, along with his wife Toni, established the Johnson Strings Scholarship to honor their lifelong appreciation for music and to support the musical talents of the students in the School of the Arts. Toni Johnson especially admired the quality education CSU students receive and wished to honor their artistic and academic achievements and help them reach their highest goals.

Johnson’s students, Jim and Wendy Franzen, also established a philosophy scholarship to honor him after his retirement in 2004. The Fred Johnson Graduate Scholarship was created to recognize his impact as a teacher and his academic achievement as a logician. The Franzens note, “Fred’s ability to create an open and nurturing environment for his students and friends, his love of music, and his great humility, continuing wonderment, and genuine concern for his students, and his retirement were the impetus for setting up this scholarship.”

If you wish to contribute to a scholarship fund in Fred Johnson’s memory, individual giving pages are available for the Johnson Strings Scholarship and the Fred Johnson Graduate Scholarship in Philosophy.