Harold F. Johnson

The library is named after Harold F. Johnson, an Amherst College alumnus and financier who gave $6 million in 1965 to found Hampshire College. He wanted to do something constructive with money he had made on the stock market, and decided that education--in particular education that would nurture more future leaders--was the most useful thing he could fund. He had read The New College Plan: a Proposal for a Major Departure in Higher Education, which had been written by a Four College (Amherst, Mount Holyoke, Smith and UMass) committee in 1958, and was impressed with its emphasis on student initiative, faculty inter-disciplinary collaboration, and its discarding of traditional (and, he agreed, outmoded) ideas such as tenure and varsity sports. He asked the president of Amherst College whether there was still interest in establishing a new college in the Valley. The answer, clearly, was yes! And so Hampshire College was on its way to becoming a reality. The New College Plan remains one of the founding documents of Hampshire College.

Johnson resolutely opposed having the new college named after him, but according to Toby Dakin, the trustees gave him "the bum's rush", and named the library after him instead. He was the first chairman of the Board of Trustees, and held the title "Trustee Emeritus" until his death in 1981. A tree planted on the occasion of a memorial service for him can be found in the southwest corner of the library quad (near the NS Greenhouse), and a short granite pillar with a plaque that reads, "This tree was planted in memory of Harold F. Johnson, whose generosity helped to found and sustain Hampshire College. October 11, 1981".

A portrait of Harold F. Johnson hangs over the reference desk in the library. Known affectionately as "Harold", the librarians like to think that he would be pleased with the work done by his college in educating future generations of leaders.

1981 Interview
An interview with Van Halsey, first Director of Admissions at Hampshire College, January 1981.

Johnson: I had been floundering around wanting to do something with money which I had gotten rather quickly and not much through my own efforts, in other words through the stock market, and I thought I should put some of it back into the mainstream and my first interest was in population, which I thought was the scourge of the world. Increase in population. But I soon found out that was too big for me to dabble in.

Halsey: When you talk about your interest in education, where did that come from? I mean, had you always been interested in education?

Johnson: No...I was just a do-gooder. I thought first that population was going to impoverish the world. And secondly, I thought...that education could be lifted to the higher level and bring out more leaders. That was the best thing that I could do and the only thing I had to work with.

Halsey: How did it come about?

Johnson: It started with Henry Heald...who was the head of the Ford Foundation...it was he who said, "You know about this thing up in the Connecticut Valley?"

Halsey: Oh, the long range report, the New College Plan that had been done.

Johnson: Yes...I had a copy of it...And he said, "You know nothing has ever practically been done about it. Each one of these presidents has great pressure on him to use any money they get on their own college, which is natural...So, why don't you see if they're still interested in the proposition?" And I said, "Well, I'm interested in education, right after population." He said, "I will get in contact with the four presidents and see if it is a live notion in their minds now, without mentioning your name or your purpose." So he did that and he reported to me that they all thought that it was a fine idea.

Halsey: So he called you back and said...

Johnson: "They all think it is a great idea, they'd like to do it, but they don't see any way of going about it." So finally I said I will put up an initial amount of money to make it credible, and I would like to do it...We didn't know how much it would cost. I said that the amount of money that I had available to donate or make use of then was about $6 million. $6 million sounds like a trifle now; then it had enough clout to be impressive. And so that started the thing off.

Halsey: And you had looked at the New College Plan?

Johnson: I had it.

Halsey: Were you enthusiastic when you read it?

Johnson: I was.

Halsey: Was there anything in there that really struck you in terms of innovativeness or anything new that wasn't being done?

Johnson: Well, I was always against tenure. That seemed to me to be a load on any college. The advantage of starting without tenure and not acquiring it was important. Then I thought the waste in athletics was a drag on the strength of any college...I'm not disinclined to athletics, but I felt that a new college should not divert any money or interest in that direction.

Halsey: It seems to me that in the late 50's there was a good deal of talk...about the rising population and the people wanting to go to colleges, and the private colleges weren't expanding. Was there any of that in the background of starting Hampshire?

Johnson: No, that was not a moving idea...it was to keep it as clean as possible and as close to the project lines as possible. So as to see if the small classical college was as good as it should be. It was to be a model by which we determined the achievements of other colleges of that same size.

Halsey: And you didn't think that that could be done at Smith or Amherst or Mount Holyoke or the other colleges already there?

Johnson: No, it never occurred to me to simply add to them. I thought that that would minimize the effect of the amount of money.

Halsey: It was always assumed that it would be a separate, completely separate operation.

Johnson: I didn't want it for my glorication. But I did want to see the thing go, and I hoped I was going to be able to help it more as time went on.