Robert C. Johnson, a former dean of the ,Yale Divinity School and noted theologian, died March 14 at the age of 82.

Professor Johnson came to Yale as the eighth dean of the Divinity School, serving in the post from 1963 to 1969. As dean, he helped establish a joint degree program in urban studies with the Schools of Art and Architecture and a joint program with the School of Music, which laid the groundwork for the Institute of Sacred Music at Yale.

Professor Johnson stepped down from the deanship to return to his teaching as a professor of theology. He was named the Noah Porter Professor of Religion at the Divinity School in 1990 and retired later that year.

At the time of his retirement, his Divinity School colleague James E. Dittes, the Roger J. Squire Professor of Pastoral Counseling, described Professor Johnson's contributions as dean in Spectrum, a publication for alumni of the Yale and Berkeley Divinity Schools and the Institute for Sacred Music. Noting that Professor Johnson held the post of dean during the "turbulent" period of the 1960s, Dittes wrote, "Bob Johnson mobilized, within the school, a creative sense of mission and a revival of morale ...

"Faculty felt nurtured and appreciated," he continued. "Many report that Bob Johnson is the only dean ever to visit their offices. He read their writings and gathered them for evening intellectual discussions. He created the faculty dining room. He initiated à la carte lunches in the refectory to encourage faculty to eat there and then had the ceiling acoustically modified, so faculty and students could hear one another. The Johnsons opened the dean's residence frequently to faculty in groups large and small."

Professor Johnson was equally well-known for his interest in and concern for students. In the same issue of Spectrum, colleague George A. Lindbeck, the Pitkin Professor Emeritus of Historical Theology, said of the former dean and theology professor: "There are few teachers who are as accessible to students as Johnson or who 'take under the wing' so many of the struggling, confused and bewildered."

Born Aug. 17, 1919, in Knoxville, Tennessee, Robert Johnson received his bachelor's degree at Davidson College and attended Princeton Theological Seminary. He received his Bachelor of Divinity degree at Union Theological Seminary. During World War II, he served as a chaplain in the U.S. Navy for two years.

After the war, Mr. Johnson continued his graduate studies, earning a master's degree at Columbia University, a Master of Sacred Theology degree from Union Theological Seminary and a doctorate from Vanderbilt University.

Professor Johnson served as a pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Shrewsbury, New Jersey, from 1943 to 1947 and of the First Presbyterian Church in Greenville, Tennessee, from 1947 to 1955. He then taught theology at the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary (then the Western Theological Seminary). During 1961 and 1962 he conducted postdoctoral research in Basel, Switzerland, on a Sealantic Fellowship from the American Association of Theological Schools.

Active in theological circles, Professor Johnson chaired the Presbyterian General Assembly Committee on the Nature of Ministry and prepared its basic study document, "The Church and Its Changing Ministry." He wrote two other books, "The Meaning of Christ" and "Authority in Protestant Theology," as well as more than 50 articles on Christian theology.

Professor Johnson was a visiting lecturer at Tusculum College and Vanderbilt University. He had been a member of the American Association of Theological Schools and the American Society of Church History, and was formerly on the editorial board of Theology Today.

Professor Johnson is survived by his wife of 60 years, Elizabeth Childs Johnson; sons Robert Johnson III of Greenville, Tennessee, and Richard Johnson of New York City; daughters Catherine Johnson of Alna, Maine, and Anne Coploff of Brooklyn, New York; and six grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. He was predeceased by his son, David R. Johnson.

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