A groundbreaking Black corporate executive and mentor, Robert L. Johnson forged his path in the business world by working for a quarter-century at venerable retailer Sears Roebuck & Co. before shifting gears and running his own packaging business for almost two decades.
Johnson also created an academy at his alma mater, Roosevelt University, that develops young men’s intellectual and leadership skills.
“Bob Johnson quietly demonstrated the promise of the American dream,” said Tony Wilkins, a longtime friend, mentee and fellow sailing enthusiast. “He moved through life quietly and effectively, demonstrating that persistence, patience and a positive attitude can provide a beautiful life. Inspirationally, he paid his good fortune, power and perspective forward. As a mentor to many folks including me, he was generous with his counsel, insights and expertise.”
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Johnson, 91, died of natural causes on July 29 at his home, said his wife of 65 years, Rose Johnson. An Evanston resident since 1972, Johnson had been in hospice care for the past year and a half.
Born in Chicago in 1935, Johnson grew up on the South Side and graduated from DuSable High School. After attending Herzl Junior College — now Malcolm X College — Johnson attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign before earning a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Roosevelt University in 1958.
Early in his career, Johnson worked for the Chicago Housing Authority as a community and tenant relations aide and later as an assistant manager, his wife said. In 1965, he took a job as an executive trainee at Sears, working first at a store in the South Side Englewood neighborhood.
Johnson soon joined Sears’ corporate headquarters offices — then located on the West Side — in its personnel department and then joined Sears’ shoe department. He held numerous positions in the shoe department and was promoted to be a vice president of men’s clothing in 1978.
“It was an exciting time because companies wanted to integrate their executive ranks,” Johnson told the Tribune in 1997.
Johnson later headed all non-Sears concessions, such as optical centers and camera departments, before retiring from the company in 1990.
Former Sears Foundation President Paula Jones, whose more than 24-year career at Sears included serving as its head of marketing communications, recalled starting work at Sears at age 21 and encountering very few fellow Black women.
“When I walked into Sears at 21 years old, I walked into an environment where there were so few people who looked like me, and there were particularly few Black women. It was almost unheard of. And he stepped up and just let me know that he was here as the highest-ranking person of color at Sears who did not hesitate to be there for you in big and little ways,” she said. “He never stopped being supportive. He was the epitome of what any good man should be.”
In 1988, while he still was working for Sears, Johnson and his daughter, Rhonda Johnson, co-founded Atlanta-based Bagcraft, a flexible packaging manufacturer that PepsiCo and Frito-Lay supported as part of an initiative to create minority-owned business suppliers. He assumed greater involvement after retiring from Sears, but before long, he and his daughter were confronted with some environmental issues related to their method of printing on packaging. So they regrouped, teaming up with Memphis-based partner Tom Bryce, and founded Johnson Bryce, a flexible packaging company that had a new method of printing that was less emission-heavy. Johnson served as the CEO of Johnson Bryce, which in 1997 was named Frito-Lay’s flexible packaging supplier of the year.
Johnson sold Johnson Bryce in 2007 to another family, and they sold their second home in Memphis in 2015.
Johnson’s civic involvement included serving on the board of the St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank while he and his wife were dividing their time between Memphis and Evanston. He also served as a member of Roosevelt University’s board of trustees from 1988 until 2017.
As part of Johnson’s work at Roosevelt, in 2014 he created the Black Male Leadership Academy. Last year, the university renamed the center the Robert L. Johnson Leadership Academy. Each summer, the academy hosts rising high school sophomores and juniors and develops personal, intellectual and leadership skills.
During retirement, Johnson enjoyed traveling and sailing, and he served on the board of the Mystic Seaport Museum in Connecticut. He also served for a time on the boards of the Evanston History Center and a local YMCA, and he enjoyed being part of a Chicago social club, the Druids.
In addition to his wife and daughter, Johnson is survived by other daughters Rosalyn Johnson and Brenda Kendrick; five grandchildren; and eight great-grandchildren.
Services are private.
Update: This story has been changed to add additional survivors.
Bob Goldsborough is a freelance reporter.