Portland poet, author, and teacher Harold Johnson has died at the age of 91. His death on Nov. 27 was confirmed this week by his wife of more than 50 years, painter and artist-professor Anne Griffin Johnson.
Johnson grew up in Yakima during World War II and attended the University of Portland, where he graduated with a degree in English. He was drafted into the U.S. Army, where he played trumpet in the 62nd Army Band at Fort Bliss, Texas. Upon his return to Portland, he pursued a master’s degree in teaching art from Portland State University. In addition to writing poetry and prose based on his experiences, he taught English and visual arts in high schools and colleges around Oregon, including Portland Night High School, an outreach program for teens who did not thrive in conventional schools.
Johnson’s work has been published in journals and anthologies, including New Poets of the American West. His book of poems, Citizenship, was published in 2014. He wrote it, he said in an interview that year, to “reflect the experience of one African-American male Pacific Northwesterner.”
Also that year, he published a novel, The Fort Showalter Blues, based on his Army experience and chronicling the period between the Korean and Vietnam wars. He also published a poetry collection titled Article.II. The Gallery, and often read his work publicly, participating in readings including the 2015 Milwaukie Poetry Series.
Johnson’s poetry, which tended to draw from difficult themes in his life, also touched on the story of his family during 20th-century America. In My Father’s Life, he describes the struggles of his father as a Black man in America:
Thirty years after the Proclamation, black men
and boys still got snatched, bought and sold for labor
where he was born, but understanding he wasn’t the kind
to survive that unkindness, he fled at age fourteen.
Johnson was a beloved part of Portland’s writing community, touching many during his time as editor at the journal Fireweed: Poetry of Oregon and beyond. Online, friends described him as “a talented, generous, beloved man,” having “magic energy,” and one who “performed magic in my 7th grade classroom, evoking student’s feelings and aspirations.” On Facebook, poet, author, and retired Reed College professor Lisa Steinman remembered him as “a friend, a fellow poet, a lovely person, who will be missed.”
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I first met Harold when I was about 19 and starting college at PSU. He and I first met in a production of a Leroy Jones play in PSU “Little Theater”. We became friends in the PSU Art Dept. Harold was interested in painting and I became a Sculpture Major. He helped me go through rough times in my life. He was always a good and steady friend to the end. Some times I just called him to hear his voice and catch up on life. I loved writing but never did it well. He would take time to improve my skills. his voice still lives inside of me. He was a good friend.
Others have spoken here of Harold’s gifts as a writer and teacher and I experienced that too. I want to recognize the gift he gave to us as a man, a model to other men. So few boys have good examples of how to be compassionate, caring, and affirming and yet still accessible about boy-stuff (sports, male banter, the desire to be seen). Harold was a rare man whose example let boys and men know that there was hope for and a path forward to their maleness.
Am so very sad to have just now read this article about Harold. We, the staff, got to know and admire and enjoy talking to Harold through his many visits to Broadway Books and his reading at the store. I remember the books he recommended to me more than once. Such a very dear, good and engaging man. It was so very easy to feel fondness toward Harold. He will be missed. True condolences to Anne and to all his many friends.
A lovely man….. my sincere sympathies to Ann and son for their loss…~♡
I had the great experience to have Harold as my teacher, councilor and mentor for all 4 years of HS and well after. We remained good friends and my only regret is that I didn’t see him after Covid hit. As my teacher, he was tough on me at times, but always pushed me to improve. I attribute much of my personal success to his influence during my formative years. I will truly miss him.
Harold was as gifted a teacher as he was writer and poet, a warm, caring, witty human being who made an enormous impact on many kids at the Night High School. Rest in power Harold, you’ve damned well earned it.
He was an amazing man, teacher, writer. Such an inspiration to so many students. His kindness will be forever embedded in our hearts.