Tom Johnson’s generosity to Trinity and other organizations comes, in part, from lessons he learned early in life.
Born and raised in Racine, Wisconsin, as a child Johnson ’62 recalls hearing his mother say to his father, “I hope such and such check will arrive so that we can make payroll.”
Johnson’s father, H. Norman Johnson, owned and operated his own small luggage manufacturing company after his former employer, Hartman Luggage, moved manufacturing from Racine to the south. “My father scraped together every penny—literally—to own his small business.”
Johnson worked at the company after school, and three out of his four summers while a student at Trinity College. “It was a great privilege for me. I saw the process of luggage making from order to manufacturing to distribution.”
Johnson credits both his parents, as well as his after-school job at the company, for many of life’s lessons. “My father managed by walking the factory and talking with every single person about the importance of what they were doing.” This early lesson in management was one he carried with him throughout his very successful career beginning at Ateneo de Manila University in the Philippines, where he held his first job, to Greenpoint Financial Corp. and Greenpoint Bank, from where he retired in 2004.
If his father’s habit of walking the factory taught him the very portable skill of how to inspire and manage people, it was his parent’s practice of donating $2 a week to church and $2 a week to the Community Chest—out of a lump-sum of $100 a week in 1956—that made Johnson cognizant of the throughline of generosity in his parent’s lives, and of the importance of generosity.
“I have gotten involved philanthropically with a lot of things that inspired me over the years,” says Johnson. “I’ve given to Trinity every year since graduation. It felt like the right thing to do. I went to Trinity on scholarship. I couldn’t have gone without that.”
Thanks to alumnus T.B. Myers, Class of 1908, Johnson was able to attend Trinity on a full scholarship. “After college, T.B. settled in Racine where he was a successful businessman. He later established a scholarship for students from Racine, which is the one I was granted. He and I became very close over the years.”
And while Johnson credits Myers for his time at Trinity, he thanks John Butler, the College’s placement director at the time, for helping him think about the path after Trinity.
“John was a man who made things happen. When he suggested I should consider Harvard Business School, I told him ‘I can’t go to Harvard,’ to which he responded, ‘you can, and you will.’ ” Tom not only enrolled at Harvard but graduated with distinction.
“Trinity was more responsible for my success than Harvard Business School,” he says. “It was the lynchpin. HBS opened doors for me later in life, but if not for Trinity I wouldn’t have gotten to HBS.”
Spanning decades, Johnson’s career included stints at the Department of Defense, Chemical Bank, and Manufacturers Hanover. He also served as a board member of Prudential Life, R.R. Donnelly and Sons, Inc., Alleghany Corporation, Phoenix Life Online Resources, and Freddie Mac and is a recently retired director of Santander Holdings USA and Santander Bank USA.
Throughout his career, Trinity has remained a priority. Johnson served as a trustee of the College from 1983 to 2004, and for six of those years as chair.
While he was the chair, Trinity’s Board of Trustees voted to commit $5.9 million from the College’s endowment to launch a bold $175-million neighborhood revitalization plan called the Learning Corridor. Trinity’s President Evan S. Dobelle H’01 was quoted in an issue of The New York Times, as saying, “We wanted the whole community to buy into the idea that their kids could be anything they want.” Supported by both the State of Connecticut and the City of Hartford, the $110.8-million Learning Corridor project was launched with a groundbreaking ceremony in 1997, and the first group of students began attending classes in the educational complex next to Trinity’s campus that same year. The Johnsons gave the lead and naming gift for the Boys and Girls Club adjacent to the Learning Corridor.
Philanthropically, the Johnsons have been leaders at Trinity. The family has endowed two distinguished professorships: the Thomas Johnson Distinguished Professorship and the Scott M. Johnson ’97 Distinguished Professorship. The latter is named for Tom and Ann’s son Scott, Class of 1997, who lost his life in the World Trade Center on 9/11.
Tom and Ann have also given in support of visiting rescued scholars at Trinity and Connecticut College in partnership with the Scholar Rescue Fund of Institute for International Education. They unfailingly support Trinity students through the Trinity College Fund.
But their support does not end there. The Johnsons have made a provision in their will that will provide a bequest of $10 million to the College, making them two of Trinity’s most generous benefactors. Asked why he has chosen to give so generously to his alma mater, Tom explains, “Philanthropy means things get done that otherwise would not get done, and hopefully, they’re good things. In the case of Trinity, I’m sure they are.”
