Grace Phillips Johnson

Winifred Johnson Clive and Thomas Phillips Johnson provided the funds for the Grace Phillips Johnson Visual Arts Center at Bethany College.  This handsome building was given in honor of their mother  who was about the most unforgettable woman I have ever met. Her portrait hangs at the entrance to the building and the students entering always say "Good morning Mrs. Johnson!"

On June 23 1877 this beautiful and strong woman was born.    Her parents Mr. & Mrs. T. W.  Phillips Sr. were highly placed in the affairs of America and in the Church of Christ of which Alexander Campbell was the principal founder. T.W. Phillips Sr. was the author of that definitive book    The Church of Christ    by    a Layman. Rutherford B. Hayes President of the United States was a family acuaintance.  James A. Garfield a very close friend of the family became President in 1881. He was assassinated by a bitter disappointed officeseeker shortly after the inaugural.    Grace was only four years old at the time but she must have felt the sorrow in the Phillips home.

She held her own against her strong and talented brothers as she grew to womanhood.     She was as dexterous as any on a horse and better than any at billiards. She was strong on the golf course and hit the ball as far as any of the men in her family.    She was a natural leader at home in school and in the church.     She was part of a business family and became adept at business as early as her majority of years.

She fell in love and married as one might expect a businessman the president of Johnson Bronze.    Mr. Johnson died when their children were still small.    She played her role well and brought them up in the lofty tradition of patriotism civility morality and Christian ideals.    They affectionately called her the “matriarch” which indeed she was.

Her benefactions were all over the land. Her hometown of New Castle, Pa depended upon her for leadership as well as money.Her church, the YWCA the YMCA the youth camps and any other Christian cause were important to her.

She effectively built two churches in Orlando, Florida where she had her winter home.    They are the Central Christian Church and the Washington Shores Church of Christ.    She provided the land and led the congregations of the Winter Park Christian Church and the Maitland Christian Church.    Grace Phillips Johnson was one of the leading donors in the creation of the great National City Christian Church in Washington D.C.. Her gifts to colleges include many of the institutions associated with the Christian Churches. Phillips University was named for her family and Bethany has three of its most distinguished buildings which bear the family name.

She was a patron of the arts and was awarded the degree Doctor of Laws honoris causa by Bethany College. She accumulated one of the finest private libraries in America with prize books decorated with diamonds and rubies.    She owned one of the few Elephantine Folios of the birds of Audubon and one of the rare collections of the Indians painted by Curtis. She encouraged her daughter Winifred in the study of art.    Winifred became one of the foremost artists of the Basque School in Biarritz France.

I have said she was a strong leader; oncewhen I was going to join her for a visit to one of the Orlando Churches, I was caught in traffic and was delayed.    When I reached her house she rebuked me for being late. I explained my predicament.     Her answer was “you should have started earlier..” She was as loving and protective of me as she would have been with one of her own children and led me to feel as if I had been adopted into the family.

Her sense of humor was wry and her ability to discuss affairs of state were exceptional. She had strong views and articulated them with clarity and logic.Her home was a mecca for the large Johnson family. She was kind to her help but expected them to live up to her own high standards.    She was in practical and business affairs “no nonsense”. Very few people talked back to her; I know I did not !

She was well into her nineties when her strong body failed and she joined the choir invisible who live again in lives made better by her presence. We all felt lonely and somewhat lost without her physical presence and her generous hospitality. When I walked out of her home for the last time I could not but think that we had just experienced the end of an era. Thank God her influence still lives. As long as family and friends remember she is an active living and loving person. God has given her memory true immortality.