Near a small and historic United Methodist church called Ebenezer in the Chuckey region of Greene County stands an aging but sturdy Victorian-era farmhouse surrounded by an orchard of new trees. On almost any given weekend Tusculum alumnus Walter R. Johnson, Class of 1971, can be found there, planting in the orchard, checking the physical structure of the house for clues about its original appearance, or hauling out loads of old canning jars, some with vegetables, blackberries and so on still in them.

Walter and his wife, Rhonda, recently emptied several such jars from the old house, whose last occupant was Walter’s father, Newman Johnson. The act of emptying some of those canning jars had personal-history significance for Walter.

“I’m pretty sure that the berries I dumped out were ones I picked while we were still living on Camp Creek,” Walter says. Given that Newman Johnson moved his family from Camp Creek to the house at Ebenezer in 1961, those were some pretty time-seasoned blackberries.

But also well-canned blackberries. Though Walter and Rhonda opted to dump out, rather than dine on, food about half a century old, the berries looked like they would have been edible, Walter says. So did the very old home-canned beans they also disposed of.

Before very many more months go by, Walter and Rhonda will be doing some new vegetable and fruit canning in the house at Ebenezer. Though it is for now unoccupied, the house is undergoing renovation and will become Walter’s home for the second time in his life, after he and Rhonda leave their current home in Greeneville and become rural folk again.

For Walter, whose boyhood home was a log house in the woods not far from the Zion United Methodist Church in Greene County, rural life is a natural fit. And living in an older house will be no new experience for Rhonda Johnson, either. She came to Greene County from Sevierville, at the Smoky Mountains, where she resided in a fine older home.

The house at Ebenezer has stood in its historic part of Greene County since sometime in the 1880s, as best Walter has been able to determine. A study of the house’s structure has revealed it is in surprisingly good shape for its age, with very minimal termite damage. Its foundation beams are 12-by-12 timbers, and the house was designed to be “self-ventilating,” Walter says.

Though professional obligations keep him busy during the working week, on weekends Walter gravitates toward the Ebenezer house, where he feels quite at home.

Walter actually is at home in a lot of settings. A man of broad experience and varied interests, he is on familiar ground in corporate offices and meeting rooms in the United States, Japan, England, China, Germany, and other places around the world.

He’s also fond of golf courses, and enjoys occupying the pilot’s seat of his Piper Cherokee 235. “For a single-engine, it’s a hoss of an airplane,” he says.

The plane is used partly for pleasure, partly for business, partly for service to others. Walter has made several “Angel Flights” for the Angel Flight organization, a non-profit organization of pilots and other volunteers dedicated to arranging free private air transportation for medical patients who cannot afford to utilize normal, commercial transportation. Angel Flight also provides services to blood, organ and tissue banks.

Man of many interests

Chemist, salesman, industrialist, aviator, churchman, philanthropist, and former Tusculum College trustee, Walter Johnson has seen a lot, traveled far, and achieved much since graduating at the top of his Tusculum College class in 1971.

Yet, despite business interests that take him frequently to China, London, and other areas of the world that seem exotic and alluring to Americans, Walter is at heart a homebody. He prefers, when possible, to be at home in East Tennessee, spending time with his wife, comfortably working in his neat but understated office at Greeneville’s Universal America, taking part in worship and activities at Greeneville’s Christ United Methodist Church, or working with the Christian organization The Gideons. At home or away, he keeps busy.

Walter has been busy since his college days, which began in fall of 1962 when he entered the University of Tennessee as a chemistry major.

In spring of ‘63, Walter was called back to Greene County. His mother needed care, and Walter accepted the responsibility. He came back home to Greene County, then went to the local employment office to find a job.

He was sent to the Tennessee Electro-Minerals Corporation, located where the county’s old “poor house” once had been. Walter went to work on March 25, 1963. The company’s president was one Bill Rawles, a “brilliant man,” Walter says. Rawles put Walter to work as a lab technician on second shift.

Walter remained on the job as his mother’s situation improved, and became a UT student again, this time by correspondence. About the same time, East Tennessee State University brought a night school to Greeneville, and Walter began taking courses there as well.

But the night school offered no chemistry courses, and chemistry can’t be done by correspondence, so Walter asked his superiors at work if he might go to Tusculum College to take chemistry, physics, and math courses. To do this he needed an assurance from his workplace that he could remain on the night shift to allow him freedom to attend Tusculum during the day.

But Bill Rawles wanted to appoint Walter as quality control manager, which required day shift work.

Rawles asked him what time his Tusculum class would begin each day. “8 a.m.,” Walter said. “How long will it last?” “One hour.” “Then I’ll expect to see you here at 9:15,” Rawles told him.

And so it was. Walter attended Tusculum College in the mornings, worked at the plant during the day, and continued attending ETSU night courses, too. And he was still taking correspondence courses through UT, too, making him a student at three colleges simultaneously.

At Tusculum College, Marion Edens, who worked as both a coach and a multi-talented administrator, became a mentor for Walter, and once demonstrated his trust in his young student in a way that touches Walter to this day.

Testing for a UT correspondence student at that time could be accomplished either by the student’s traveling to UT to take the exam, or by having the exam administered elsewhere by an authorized party from another institution as approved by UT. Marion Edens became that authorized party for Walter Johnson, and administered Walter’s UT tests in Edens’ home near the campus.

Walter recalls one occasion upon which he was about to take a test in Edens’ home, and Edens had a conflicting appointment elsewhere.

Edens told Walter to finish the test in his absence and leave it at a certain place when completed. As Edens readied to leave, Walter said, “But how do you know that I don’t have my textbooks in my car outside?”

“I’m sure that you do have your books out in your car, Walter,” Edens replied. “I’m also sure you won’t go out and get them.”

Edens went on to his appointment, Walter completed his test. And the books stayed in the car, untouched.

Walter was an honest student, and one bright enough to not need to cheat in any case. He became a top student at Tusculum, but not one heavily involved in campus activities. In those days, “day students,” as commuters were called, were not much involved in Tusculum campus life, and in fact often felt snubbed by residential students, Walter recalls.

Even without those campus culture factors, Walter would have not had much opportunity for campus activities given his work schedule.

Because of his combined load of school and work, Walter took one class a day per semester from 1964 through 1971, unconsciously foreshadowing the “focused calendar” scheduling that would become a hallmark of Tusculum College some years later.

Throughout the same period he took UT courses by correspondence and continued to attend ETSU night school.>

Tusculum’s were the only on-campus courses he took, however. During those years he became fond of certain staff and faculty members of the college. He remembers Dr. Walter Phelan, a chemistry professor, as a “practical eccentric” who could prepare for class while smoking his pipe and also tinkering with a broken-apart radio on his desk and reading a magazine balanced on a drawer or open on the floor.

Walter had a class under Dr. Phelan that met on the fourth floor of Tredway Hall. He typically sat in a particular part of the room, and Dr. Phelan, coming up the stairs toward his nearby office prior to class, would usually glance in the door to see the early arrivals in his class.

Walter gave his teacher quite a shock one day, just by showing up.

There was at that time in Greene County another Walter Johnson, one about the same age as Tusculum’s Walter Johnson, and with the same middle initial, and at one time, even a similar address. This other Walter Johnson, sadly, fell victim to murder, killed in a dispute between family members.

Tusculum’s Walter Johnson, meanwhile, remained alive and well, showed up for class as usual and took his normal seat in Dr. Phelan’s room. As he waited for class to begin, he heard Dr. Phelan clumping up the stairs, and a moment later the teacher thrust his head through the door and took a look around, as usual.

Then, again as usual, Phelan pulled back out into the hall again to go on to his office.

At that point, the normal pattern changed. Dr. Phelan thrust his head back into the room again, eyes wide, and gaped at Walter, who naturally asked what was wrong.

“You’re not supposed to be here,” Dr. Phelan replied.

“I’m not?” Walter said. “Why?”

“Because you’re dead,” Dr. Phelan replied flatly.

The matter was quickly clarified, of course, and Walter continued on with both life and education.

‘You owe something back’

Walter Johnson went on to graduate at the top of his class, but because he was a part-time student, he was not allowed to graduate with summa or magna cum laude honors.

It was a denial that Walter admits he did not easily forget. In fact, it remained on his mind years later when he was approached in the early 1990s about joining Tusculum College’s Board of Trustees, and he told the visiting Tusculum representatives about it forthrightly.

To Tusculum’s good fortune, Walter chose to be forgiving, and joined the board as invited. He proved not only to be a highly active member, serving as treasurer and as a member of the steering committee of the Tusculum 2000 capital campaign, but also a generous donor to the College, most recently through his support of the Campaign for the Library. Walter and Rhonda have committed $100,000 toward the library expansion and improvement project, one of the most vital efforts in Tusculum College’s recent history.

The Johnsons’ generosity didn’t start with the current capital campaign. In the 1990s, Walter and Rhonda also gave a major gift to the Tusculum 2000 campaign, and they’ve given other gifts through the years.

What sparks this generosity?

Walter has a ready answer. “What I’ve done is paying back a debt you have to feel you owe. If it weren’t for Tusculum College, I’d probably not be where I am today. You owe something back.”

Rise of a professional man

How did Walter reach the place in life at which he could afford to “pay back” to his alma mater at the generous level he has?

According to Walter, his professional career has developed much like anyone else’s. “You start off in a field, make discoveries, things happen, opportunities present themselves,” he says.

In his case, a key opportunity arose when Walter, who always thought of himself simply as a dedicated chemist, was asked to sell a product his company had developed.

Through that experience he discovered new abilities, and one key principle of salesmanship: “People buy from people.” Thus he’s always remained involved in sales and prefers to face-to-face approach.

Walter made several important advances in life and career during the 1980s. He and Rhonda were married in 1982. By this time he was working for Combustion Engineering, which had purchased the company in 1980.

Walter was transferred into sales after his marriage. Then, in the mid-1980s, events occurred that would propel Walter to a new professional level.

In late 1985, the president of Muscle Shoals Minerals in Muscle Shoals, Ala., resigned for health reasons. The company began looking for a new executive, and Walter’s name came up. He received a call from the company in January of 1986, interviewed,and on June 15 of that year started duties as president.

Changes occurred at CE as well. In December of 1986, CE was approached by a Japanese company, Tateho, with a request to purchase the magnesium oxide portion of the company. The sale went through.

Years later, in 1994, Walter turned the tables and approached Tateho about a purchase. That deal was completed in 1995, and Walter came home to Greene County in ‘96 to preside over the plant.

Today he oversees not only what is now Universal America, Inc., in Greeneville, but also several other companies associated with UCM Group, PLC, which is on the London Stock Exchange and headquartered at Stafford, England.

Those companies are in the English cities of Hull and Stafford, in Cherokee, Ala., and China. Information about UCM Group and its plants and chemical products can be found on the Web at www.ucm-group.com.

He enjoys his work, he says, though the inevitable travel is tiring. Having visited the far corners of the globe many times, he’s glad now to let his professional associates make the trips when possible. But travel remains a fairly frequent duty nonetheless.

In 2003, Walter Johnson left the Tusculum College Board of Trustees -- reluctantly. UCM Group ruled that its directors, of which Walter is one, could serve only on a limited number of other boards, leaving Walter with no other option but to step down from Tusculum’s board

Though his official ties with the College are now behind him, he remains a strong friend of his alma mater and a welcome visitor when he is on its campus.

- Cameron Judd