Michael Johnson was a community builder who tapped into his own hardscrabble upbringing in Chicago’s public housing as he rose to key positions in the Boys & Girls Clubs and with the Chicago Public Schools.
“He was extraordinary, he was charismatic, he was dynamic and he was absolutely fearless,” said former Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas, a longtime mentor. “He had a way of communicating with people. He was really talented, and he did a stellar job with youth outreach.”
Johnson, 50, died suddenly of heart failure on June 7 at Franciscan Health Dyer in Dyer, Indiana, said his wife, Toya. He had lived in the Madison, Wisconsin, area since 2010, and had maintained a northwest Indiana home as well.
Born in 1975 in Chicago, Johnson was the youngest of five children born to Susie Mae Johnson. He grew up in the ABLA Homes public housing development on the Near West Side, now mostly demolished, and graduated from Cregier Vocational High School. He attended the University of Minnesota on a scholarship before returning home and opening a barbecue restaurant on the West Side, while also taking classes at Malcolm X College.
Johnson showed an aptitude for working with youth. At just 20 years old in 1996, he began working for the Boys & Girls Clubs of Chicago, first as club director for the Yancey Boys & Girls Club. He soon was promoted to be director of school sites and extensions. In that role, he oversaw a workforce of 60 people at sites based at public schools, and he created the first three Boys & Girls Clubs to be housed in Chicago public schools — the first one of which was at Englewood High School on the South Side. Vallas also tapped Johnson as a limited-term employee and special assistant coordinating projects within schools.
Johnson also served during that time as a liaison to the mayor’s office for Community Development Block Grants and Chicago Public Schools.
“Mike had a drive to get things done, so whatever the project was — and it could have been in any field — he just had this drive about him,” said Creg Williams, who worked in the Chicago Public Schools in the 1990s and worked with Johnson. “He knew how to inspire people, and he pushed that envelope to get things done, and that was part of his character.”
Lisa Cockerham, who served as Johnson’s Boys & Girls Clubs program director at Englewood High School during that time, said he “taught me to believe in the impossible.”
“It was a huge endeavor because we were charged with providing not only recreational activities but also social activities for students at Englewood High,” she said. “He believed so much in the power of youth development and even workforce development. It was so much fun working with him.”
Looking back, Vallas, who was the Chicago Public Schools CEO from 1995 until 2001, said he marvels at how young Johnson was when working for the Boys & Girls Clubs of Chicago.
“I just was immediately impressed with him,” Vallas said.
Johnson later returned to school, earning a bachelor’s degree in business education from Chicago State University in 2001. He then picked up an MBA from the University of Phoenix in 2004.
Johnson also served as a deputy campaign manager for Vallas’ unsuccessful run for the Democratic nomination for Illinois governor in March 2002.
Later in 2002, Vallas recruited Johnson to join him in Philadelphia, where Vallas was hired as CEO of that city’s school district. For close to three years, Johnson was a special assistant to Vallas. One of his primary jobs was overseeing facility operations, including managing maintenance of the buildings and managing building engineers.
“Our operations shop — they were almost overwhelmingly white,” Vallas said. “I thought this would be a good job for Michael — a great learning experience for him and them. And that’s what happened — they learned from him and he learned from them. It was baptism by fire.”
From 2005 until 2007, Johnson was vice president of the Monsanto Family YMCA in St. Louis. In 2007 and 2008, he was based in Indianapolis and worked as executive director of Lutheran Child and Family Services of Indiana and Northern Kentucky. Then, from 2008 until 2010, Johnson returned to Philadelphia, whose mayor appointed him deputy commissioner of parks and recreation.
In 2010, Johnson was hired as president and CEO of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Dane County in Madison. During his 16 years in the role, Johnson expanded its operations across the Wisconsin towns of Fitchburg, Madison, Verona and Sun Prairie, and his organization also acquired the Boys & Girls Clubs of Walworth County.
Johnson also proved to be an adept fundraiser, developing strategic plans that resulted in more than 22,000 donors contributing more than $50 million to the Boys & Girls Clubs of Dane County. He also quadrupled the number of children and families being served, and he quadrupled the number of employees. Johnson also increased his organization’s net assets from $4 million to $26 million.
One of Johnson’s proudest achievements was heading a capital campaign aimed at raising $35 million for a regional workforce center.
What constantly drew Johnson to the mission of the Boys & Girls Clubs was rooted in his own childhood, his wife said.
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“That was a place (where) he felt safe,” she said. “He felt as a kid, growing up, that that was safety for him.”
Pete Gochis, a longtime friend who now is based in Wisconsin and who operated a liquor and grocery store across the street from Johnson’s public housing development when Johnson was a child, called Johnson’s story “an inspiration for kids who are in the projects or downtrodden or disadvantaged, to have some kind of hope.”
In October, Johnson published a book, “The Audacity to Lead: From the Projects to the C-Suite.”
Outside of work, Johnson enjoyed bicycling and spending time with family, his wife said.
In addition to his wife, Johnson is survived by a son, Michael Jr.; two daughters, Micayla and Micaiya; and two sisters, Sharron Spearman and Jacqueline Jordan.
Services were held.
Bob Goldsborough is a freelance reporter.