James Ross Johnson, Jr.

Born February 2nd, 1931, in Florence County, SC, he was the son of the late Reverend J. Ross Johnson and Leilah Smith Johnson of Sumter, SC. He is survived by his wife, Sara Bee Craig Johnson; his daughter, Rebekah Susan Johnson Headen; his son, Craig Ross Johnson; and his two grandsons, Franklin Craig Headen and James Edward Headen.

In the late summer of 1937 Jim was infected with polio and could not walk. He fully recovered thanks to a new approach developed by Sister Elizabeth Kenny, which was highly controversial at the time. Jim graduated from Orangeburg High School in 1949 where he was the Senior Class President and Captain of the football team. He graduated college with a degree in Architecture from Clemson College, now Clemson University, in 1954. His claim to fame at Clemson was his stint as the Clemson Tiger mascot.

After spending almost two years as a Bridge Specialist in Germany with the Army Corps of Engineers, he returned to the U.S. and took a job in Charleston, SC, and shortly thereafter moved to Charlotte, NC. He was first with JN Pease and then AG Odell Associates. He immediately joined Myers Park United Methodist Church and at one of their singles outings he met his bride, Sara Bee Craig – a recent Queens College graduate, in the summer of 1957. After he became a Registered Architect, he was hired by Craig Phillips, the superintendent of Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools to become the CMS Director of School Construction. After managing over twelve-million dollars of new school construction for CMS, he decided to open his private practice in the Latta Arcade in Charlotte in the late 1960’s.

While in private practice, in 1972, he was asked by Governor Bob Scott to be the architect part of a three-person team to preserve and restore the NC Capitol Building in Raleigh. The team also included John Sanders with the NC Institute of Government and Orin Bullock, FAIA. His firm received several design awards over the years from the American Institute of Architects.

Jim was an active civic leader who served as the President of the Charlotte Civitan Club. Mayor John Belk appointed Jim as the Chair of the Model Cities Planning and Housing Task Force. He designed and planned fifty new housing units in the Cherry and Frazier Street communities for the Charlotte Housing Authority. One of his special projects and one that he was most proud of was his grass roots effort to save the Wendover trees. The trees were planned to be cut down when they widened the road, Jim saw this as a grave mistake as the trees were so majestic, and he was able to convince the city to save the trees. He is the reason they are still there for our enjoyment today.

He loved to watch Clemson football, body surfing, reading, writing notes, reciting poetry, drinking sweet tea, eating at Showmars and the Waffle House, telling corny joke, traveling to the mountains of NC, the beaches of SC and his all-time favorite city, Charleston, SC.

A private memorial service will be held on Friday, October 30, at Myers Park United Methodist Church.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be sent to the Mark Headen Endowed Scholarship fund at the NC Outward Bound School, 2582 Riceville Road, Asheville, NC, 28805, (828) 239.2145.