The Passing of a “Rock Star”
It is with great sadness that we post the following obituary, sent only moments ago by Andrea Lunsford. Andrea was the first to notify the Coalition membership of Nan’s passing, and has been in Columbus, Ohio with Nan’s family, attending to the news. – Tarez Graban
Nan Johnson, professor of English emerita at The Ohio State University, passed away peacefully on August 31, 2019, surrounded by her family and dear friends. Nan was born in Greeley, Colorado in 1951. At just one month old, she found herself aboard an Army transport aircraft headed to Germany where she, her mother Jean, and her older brother Robb joined dad Hugh who was assigned to a U.S. Army post-WW II EOD (Explosive Ordinance Division). After being posted all over the world, the family settled in Leavenworth, Kansas where Nan graduated from high school and later received a BA and MA from Kansas State University. Her growing interest in the field of rhetoric and literacy coupled with her not-so-hidden desire to become a rock star took her to California where she received a second MA and a Ph.D. at the University of Southern California, studying with the legendary Ross Winterowd and Marjorie Perloff. In 1981, she joined Andrea Lunsford in the University of British Columbia English Department, where she taught courses in the history of rhetoric and advanced writing. From 1990 until her retirement in 2018, she was professor of English at The Ohio State University, helping to build one of the most distinguished graduate programs in rhetoric and composition in the country.