Historic TSU professor to retire

Napoleon Johnson, a beloved professor at Texas Southern University announced that he will be retiring from teaching this upcoming May.

“I was thinking maybe one class, maybe a year or two and next thing I knew somebody spun me around and I looked up and it was 10 years,” he said after realizing the amount of time he spent teaching at TSU.

Johnson had previously retired from Houston Community College when he arrived at TSU. He did not plan on staying long but the school of communications needed him and he did not find it in his heart to turn them down.

Ten years later he decided that it really is time for some rest.

“I’ll be reading, I’ll be doing some writing, I’ll even be doing a video project.”

He has a lot of personal projects to look forward to during retirement that will keep him busy and he’s especially excited about sleeping in and not having to make the eight A.M. class he has taught for the last few years.

Even though Professor Johnson has shown excitement for retirement students and staff say the halls of the school of communication will not be the same without him.

“I’ve had him every semester since I’ve been here so for me it's a personal hit that he’s leaving,” said Maiya Turner, a Broadcast Journalism student at TSU’s Martin Luther King School of Communication.

Turner says she doesn’t know the communication department without Johnson and it is hard for her to imagine it. More than a professor she has considered Professor Johnson a person of trust who has always been there to give her advice and to make her laugh.

TSU’s Napoleon Johnson had already an extensive resume before arriving to the school of communication. After he graduated college, Johnson decided to join the army. When he came back from duty he became a technical writer for NASA, he translated the NASA’s engineering jargon to common language. Johnson’s experience in writing eventually allowed him to become a reporter for KPRC Channel 2 news with no previous experience in broadcasting. He became one of the first black reporters in the city.

“I’m thinking in the city maybe I was like 3rd or 4th,” he said recalling a time when people of color were not commonly professionals.

He became an inspiration to many, including his collegue, Professor Sandifer Walker, who grew up in Houston and saw Johnson do his job from the other end of the television.

“I remember seeing Napoleon Johnson on TV, I was just so impressed, I was like wow, maybe I can do what he’s doing someday because you didn’t see many people of color.”

Having someone lead by example of what you could become inspired many to think that what they wished to do one day was possible and Napoleon Johnson did just that throughout his career, he inspired television viewers and eventually students who learned from him.