Malcolm Johnson Collection

Malcolm Johnson was born on February 13, 1913 in Wardner, Idaho. At the age of three Johnson's family moved to Youngstown, Alberta. In 1925, hoping to take advantage of the economic boom in Florida, Johnson's father moved his family to Jacksonville, Florida. In 1936, Johnson graduated from the University of Florida with a degree in journalism. He studied pre-med until his junior year when he switched to journalism, because he later remarked, it seemed journalism students were having "a lot more fun." Immediately after graduation he briefly worked for the Jacksonville Journal and various other Florida newspapers.

Nineteen thirty-seven saw many changes in Johnson's life. In that year he married Dorothy Burt, a childhood friend from Jacksonville and went to work for the Tallahassee Democrat as the City Editor. In 1940 Johnson left the newspaper to work for the Associated Press in its Tallahassee Capitol Bureau. He remained there fourteen years, the last eleven of which he was Bureau Chief. In 1954 Johnson returned to the Tallahassee Democrat and became its Editor.

Apart from his editorials, Johnson wrote numerous columns during his twenty-three years as Editor of the Tallahassee Democrat, including "Under the Dome" and "Campaign Comment." However, he is best remembered for his weekly column "I Declare." "I Declare" ran five days a week in the Tallahassee Democrat from 1965 to 1978 and at its height was syndicated in twenty-five Florida newspapers.

Johnson's columns and editorials reflected his opinion on diverse issues. For instance, Johnson felt strongly about the preservation of nature and history in the "Big Bend" area, a name he coined for use in the Tallahassee Democrat. With others he created the Upsy Daisy Plant Uplift Society that helped rescue plants that would have otherwise been destroyed by road and building construction. Johnson often wrote about local history and lore in his columns and published his own history of frontier Florida, Red, White, and Bluebloods in Frontier Florida, in 1976. He and his wife were also active in the Tallahassee Historical Society.

However, Johnson was a pragmatist and despite his work to preserve aspects of Tallahassee's natural and historic character, he realized that if Tallahassee was to grow certain improvements and additions needed to be made. In this regard he championed the expansion of the airport and the construction of a new library and hospital. He was one of the voices urging the building of a civic center and the development of a research park, the result of which became Innovation Park. Johnson also set up a group through the Tallahassee Democrat known as Funders Inc., which sent needy kids to summer camp.

Johnson's tenure at the Tallahassee Democrat was not without controversy. His opinions could often be polarizing. He did not see the role of editor as an unbiased mediator. As he explained in one of his columns, "There is no pretense of being unbiased or sitting in the middle of the road. We agree with the fellow who said he never saw much there except a yellow streak and once in a while a dead skunk or possum."

Johnson retired from the Tallahassee Democrat in January of 1978. In 1984 he published I Declare, a collection of essays encapsulating his twenty-three years at the Tallahassee Democrat. Johnson died December 6, 1989.