Published: April 24, 2008 12:26 pm            

Doug Johnson: Still cheerleading for literacy

TAMPA, FLA. — Inner peace never leaves Doug Johnson for too long.

The Lockport, N.Y., native’s name and face were readily recognized in his hometown newspaper for the better part of 40 years, thanks to his regular good deeds on behalf of the community.

Johnson, a financial consultant, established a reputation as a champion of literacy in Lockport. In 1988, in remembrance of his late mother, he started “Project Read” to encourage daily reading to children in part by putting books in moms’ and babies’ hands at Lockport Memorial Hospital and Lockport Public Library. Project Read evolved into the children’s summer reading program at the library.

Johnson also was known for giving away personal computers, to places like the library and Washington Hunt Elementary School, in the early 1990s when they were still a relative novelty, and for his regular gifts to the Sister Mary Loretto Memorial Soup Kitchen.

Johnson left Lockport 10 years ago, after his wife Lorraine’s death and his subsequent illness forced him to seek his family’s help raising two small, motherless children.

Today Johnson is remarried, his tots have grown into a teen and pre-teen with bright futures ahead and the family name is still squarely associated with thoughtful philanthropy.

“Lindsay is 15 and driving. She’s an honor student, a freshman in a program similar to International Baccalaureate,” Johnson said. “Zach is 12 and he just took the SATs. He’s a smart little bugger. ... (Lorraine) would be very happy. These kids pulled themselves up by their bootstraps. They’re happy, good kids.”

Johnson characterizes himself as “doing OK” too. He hasn’t worked since he left Lockport — a serious back problem left him unable — but the success of his investments ensures a good home for his family and time for him to give to the Hillsborough County, Florida, school district.

Johnson remains passionate about the importance of early reading and helps advise the school district how to build its libraries’ collections and reach. He’s part of the district effort to bring libraries fully online within the next year, he said.

At 50 years old, Johnson says his “dream” goal is to acquire five million books for kids and feed one million people. That he calls it simply a case of “doing the right thing in life” might seem remarkable given the blows he’s suffered along the way.

Johnson lost his sister, brother-in-law and nephew in a High Street house fire and both of his parents died after suffering with lengthy illnesses. In the mid 1990s, the US&J reported on Johnson’s use of a videophone, new technology then, to connect his kids with Lorraine while she was treated for breast cancer at Roswell Park Cancer Institute.

Lorraine, a health educator who had been one of the pioneers of local access programming on LCTV, died in 1996, and left Johnson with a 3-year-old and an infant to raise on his own. Making matters worse was Johnson’s own health. He’d broken his back in 1990 and strained it irreparably carrying Lorraine everywhere in the last months of her life.

Unable to work, he packed up his kids in 1998 and headed to Tampa, where family could help them get past the losses.

In the absence of work, travel turned out to be good salve for the Johnsons’ wounds. They’ve visited 42 countries in the past 10 years, Johnson said. In Roaton, near Honduras, he met Lisa, a medical professional from Boston, and married her five years ago.

“She’s a wonderful girl,” Johnson said. “It’s worked out well.”

Johnson has returned to Lockport only twice in the past 10 years. It’s almost not necessary, since a “steady stream” of natives, including Dave Licata and Bob Zabel, visit him instead. It’s not about avoiding the ghosts of his past, he suggests, it’s about life going on.

“I’ve had a great time the last 10 years. I have no regrets,” Johnson said. “I have a dream life.”



• Who: Doug Johnson

• Where he is now: Tampa, Fla.

• Reconnect with him: by e-mail at dougchfc@yahoo.com

        

• Click to discuss this story with other readers on our forums.