November 15, 1929 - March 27, 2023
Harold S. Johnson, of Orchard Park, formerly of Hamburg, a retired university professor and federal government economist passed away on March 27, 2023 at the Fox Run Retirement Center in Orchard Park, NY at the age of 93.
Born in Hamburg, he was a 1947 graduate of Hamburg High School and a 1951 graduate of St. Lawrence University. He earned a master’s degree from Syracuse University, a doctorate in political science and a master’s in public policy from the University of Michigan.
Dr. Johnson taught for 17 years at Michigan State University, having earlier taught at Canisius College in Buffalo. He is the author of a landmark study of the use of plebiscites as an international means for self-determination. He left teaching for a career with the Bureau of Labor Statistics in Washington D.C., retiring in 1997 with the Commissioner’s Distinguished Service Award.
In retirement, he volunteered with the Route 62 Reconstruction Committee in Hamburg, Imagine Hamburg, the Village of Hamburg Economic Development Committee of which he served as chair, Hamburg Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, Hamburg Village Business Advisory Council Board of Directors and the Hamburg High School Finance Advisory Board.
He holds a Hamburg Chamber of Commerce Community Service Award, a VBAC Trail Blazer Award, a Character Council Citizen’s Award, a Hamburg Board of Education Distinguished Alumni Award, and with his two sisters, a Hamburg High School Alumni Foundation family induction into the Alumni Wall of Fame.
He endowed a scholarship at St. Lawrence University for the recipients from Erie County. In 2011 the St. Lawrence University Manley Society presented him with an achievement for the pilot his grant proved to be.
Dr. Johnson was preceded in death by his mother Julia G.; elder brother and sister, George R. And Betty W., and his twin sister Helen. A memorial service will be held privately. Internment will be held privately at Hillcrest Cemetery. Memorial contributions in Dr. Johnson’s honor may be made to the Hamburg Finance Advisory Board, 4111 Legion Drive Hamburg, NY 14075. Funeral Arrangements entrusted to LOOMIS, OFFERS & LOOMIS INC. FUNERAL HOME (Hamburg Chapel).
