Arlo F. Johnson Endowed Scholarship

This scholarship was created by Christopher Johnson in honor of Dr. Johnson (or Arlo as he was often referred to by his students), who began teaching full time in the department of Mechanical Engineering in 1951 until he retired in 1980. In that time, he took two sabbatical leaves. From 1961 to 1963 he spent two years in Bandung, Indonesia helping train future professors of Mechanical Engineering at ITB (Institute of Technology at Bandung) as part of a US AID program. In 1971, he taught for six months at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand. He was department chair from 1954 to 1958 and was the department student advisor for much of his later career. He believed that his primary responsibility was teaching engineering students. He loved solutions that were simple and intuitive. In the pre-computer days, he was especially enamored with graphical solutions. He was always looking for ways to make engineering concepts clearer to students. He once lamented, “I have watched my students struggle as we make our way through a chosen text book, and have wished the author had found it in his heart to withhold some of the things he knows until later.” He had a wry sense of humor, and once, when a student offered a different approach to a problem solution, he replied, “Well, Mr. Roberts, like the lady said when she kissed the cow, ‘To each his own taste.’” He was a bit of a philosopher and a writer of essays. Some applied to engineering. For example, his essay titled “There are no Kilograms” decried what he perceived as an inconsistency in the SI system of units. He also wrote essays on a more logical arrangement of keys on a keyboard, a more sensible spelling system for the English language, and a better way to notate music. All of the above were efforts on his part to make the world more logical and sensible. He loved the University of Utah, the mountains, engineering education, and his students. We hope that your engineering education will prepare you to help make the world a better place.