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Johnson, who has travelled widely, taught law and communication studies, is a columnist and public lecturer, computer enthusiast, and fellow of the World Academy of Art and Science. He has formerly, among many other things, served as co-director of a public health public policy institute, network TV host, congressional candidate, author of books, articles and a nationally syndicated column, FCC Commissioner, school board member, U.S. Maritime Administrator, and law clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black.
In 2009 he was included in The Yale Biographical Dictionary of American Law as one of 700 individuals described by the publisher as "leading figures in the history of Ameican law, from the colonial era to the present day."
He was born in Iowa City, Iowa, in 1934,
the son of Wendell (parents from Laxarby, Sweden) and Edna Bockwoldt Johnson (parents from Fehmarn, Germany/Denmark). In 1980 he returned from Washington,
D.C., to Iowa City -- giving rise to the name of his blog, "FromDC2Iowa.blogspot.com."
He and his wife, Mary Vasey, have seven children, five grandchildren, three
great grandchildren, one cat, six fish, and four plecostomus.
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ACADEMIC AND WRITING EXPERIENCE BUSINESS AND MANAGEMENT EXPERIENCE |
LABOR AND
PUBLIC INTEREST
PRINT JOURNALISM, BROADCASTING EXPERIENCE
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Who is Nicholas Johnson?Nicholas Johnson can be found at . . .Web page: http://www.nicholasjohnson.org/about/njbio04.html
Who's Who in America: http://www.nicholasjohnson.org/about/whowho.html
University of Iowa College of Law: https://law.uiowa.edu/people/nicholas-johnson
. . . and with searches in . . .His Web page: http://nicholasjohnson.org
His blog (FromDC2Iowa): http://FromDC2Iowa.blogspot.com
Facebook (personal page): http://www.facebook.com/nicholas.johnson.50364
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Voice Phone (and messages): 319-337-5555
Fax: 319-335-9098 or 319-335-9019 (address: "Attention Nicholas Johnson")
Postal: Box 1876, Iowa City IA 52244-1876
Parcels: UI College of Law, Melrose & Byington, Iowa City IA 52242-1113
ACADEMIC AND WRITING EXPERIENCE
University of Iowa Experimental Schools, 1936-1952. B.A., 1956, LL.B, 1958, University of Texas, Austin. L.H.D., Windham College, 1971.
Phi Beta Kappa, Pi Sigma Alpha, Phi Eta Sigma, Phi Delta Phi, Chancellors, Order of the Coif, Golden Key. Poynter Fellow, Yale University, 1971.Distinguished visiting professorships: University of Wisconsin, Madison, 1980; Syracuse University, 1980; California State University, Los Angeles, 1986; University of California San Diego (Regents' Professor), 2000.
Acting associate professor of law, University of California, Berkeley, 1960-63. Adjunct professor of law, Georgetown University, Washington, D.C., 1971-73; visiting professor, University of Illinois Law School, Champaign-Urbana, 1976; University of Oklahoma, Norman, 1978; Illinois State University, Normal, 1979; College of Law, University of Iowa, 1980-2014; Department of Communication Studies, University of Iowa, 1982-85; Department of Theater Arts, University of Iowa, 1999; University of California San Diego, Western Behavioral Sciences Institute, 1986-91. (And see "Distinguished visiting professorships," above.)
Cases and Materials on Oil and Gas Law (2 volumes, 1961); How to Talk Back to Your Television Set (1970; 2013); Test Pattern for Living (1972; 2013); Cases and Materials on Communications Law (4 volumes, 1981-86); Introductory and Background Readings for Law of Electronic Media (1993) and Readings Supplement (1994); Law of Electronic Media in a Cyberspace Age (with David Loundy; 2 volumes, 1996); articles, notes and book reviews in such law reviews and journals as California, Columbia, Federal Communications, Georgetown, Iowa, Texas, UCLA, Virginia and Yale. About 400 separate opinions in volumes 4-43 of the official Federal Communications Commission Reports (Second Series), including the book-length Broadcasting in America (42 FCC 2d 1). See generally, Nicholas Johnson Material By Source, Bibliography (1952-95), 333-page link off of the main Web page, "Recent Publications" (1995-2016), and blog (over 1000 entries, 2006-present).
Johnson's books include, How to Talk Back to Your Television Set, Test Pattern for Living, Your Second Priority, Are We There Yet, Virtualosity, What Do You Mean and How Do You Know?, Predicting Our Future Cyberlife, and From D.C. to Iowa: 2012.
In 1970 Newsweek listed Johnson as one of four individuals most in demand for university presidencies (along with former Secretary of HEW John Gardner, Attorney General Ramsey Clark and Ford Foundation President McGeorge Bundy).
His over 500 speaking invitations have included one or more from each of 125 individual colleges and universities.
AWARDS, GENERAL
One of Ten Outstanding Young Americans, U.S. Jaycees, 1967; New Republic Public Defender Award, 1971; Civil Liberties Award, Georgia Civil Liberties Union, 1972; DeWitt Carter Reddick Award, University of Texas, 1977; George Stoney Award for Humanistic Communications, National Federation of Local Cable Programmers, 1987. In 2009 he was included in The Yale Biographical Dictionary of American Law as one of 700 individuals described by the publisher as "leading figures in the history of Ameican law, from the colonial era to the present day."BIOGRAPHICAL LISTINGS
Primary: Marquis Who's Who in America. Other: Bio-Base (1990); Biography Index (vols. 8, 9, 10; 1971, 1974, 1977); The Blue Book Leaders of the English-Speaking World (1976); Brown, Les, The New York Times Encyclopedia of Television (1977); Burke, W.J. and Howe, Will D., American Authors and Books, 1640 to the Present Day (3rd rev. ed. 1972); Celebrity Register (3rd ed. 1973); Contemporary Authors (vols. 29-32, 1978); Current Biography Yearbook (1968); Association of American Law Schools' Directory of Law Teachers (current); International Authors and Writers Who's Who; Les Brown's Encyclopedia of Television (1982); The New York Times Biographical Edition (1971); Paneth, Donald, The Encyclopedia of American Journalism (1983); Personalities of America; Syndicated Columnist Contacts; Syndicated Columnists Directory; University of Texas Alumni Directory; University of Texas Law Alumni Association Alumni Directory; Who's Who in America (see above); Who's Who in Entertainment; Who's Who in Government (1972); Who's Who in the Midwest; Who's Who in Society; Who's Who in the South and Southwest (1973); Who's Who in U.S. Writers, Editors & Poets; Who's Who in the World (1974; 1976); Who's Who in Writers, Editors & Poets; The Writers Directory (1976; 1980; 1982; 1984; 1986; 1988).BUSINESS AND MANAGEMENT EXPERIENCE
Sole administrator of billion-dollar Maritime Administration, 1964-66 (other Maritime-related titles: Chair, Maritime Subsidy Board; Commandant, Kings Point Maritime Academy; Director, War Shipping Authority; Chair, NATO PBOS). One of seven Commissioners responsible for Federal Communications Commission, 1966-73. IBM Executives' Computer Concepts Course, 1967. Chair and CEO, National Citizens Committee for Broadcasting, Washington, D.C., 1974-78, National Citizens Communications Lobby, 1974-present. Legal representation of nation's largest steel and cement companies and a major airline, 1963-64 (Covington & Burling, Washington, D.C.). Research, teaching, writing and lecturing about oil and gas, shipping, ship building, broadcasting, computers, telephone, Internet and related industries. Lecturing to numerous corporations and trade associations. Co-Director, Institute on Health, Behavior and Environmental Policy, 1990-93. Member school board, Iowa City Community School District ($70-million-dollar budget), 1998-2001.
COMPUTERS, TELECOMMUNICATIONS AND ELECTRONICS
Presidential Advisor, White House Conference on Libraries and Information Services, 1979 (appointed by President Jimmy Carter; planned and managed with computer conferences through EIES (Electronic Information Exchange System, New Jersey Institute of Technology)); former Chair, Virtual Classroom Project, NJIT (testing of software and teaching effectiveness via computer conferencing); former ConnectEd faculty (New School for Social Research, New York City; computer conference-provided college education); former University of California San Diego, Western Behavioral Sciences Institute, International Executive Forum, faculty 1986-91 (global computer conferencing executive education). Keynoted 1991 Asia Pacific Networking Forum in Seoul. UI Information Arcade Advisory Council, UI Information Arcade Database Task Force (1991-92). Telecommunications Sector Committee, Infrastructure Planning Task Force, Iowa Department of Economic Development (2009-10).
llustrative (present and former) computer conferencing/e-mail/online database accounts: America Online, Avalon Network, CompuServe, EasyLink, Internet Navigator, IRIS, Lexis/Nexis, MCIMail, MetaNet, PeaceNet, Prodigy, SCARCNet (global anti-smoking activists), UI LAWNet, UI Weeg, WELL, Westlaw. Web site creation, such as: http://www.nicholasjohnson.org and linked sites, NicholasJohnson.org/Greenbelt, http://FromDC2Iowa.blogspot.com; UI Law Cyberspace Law Seminar use of, publication of papers on, Internet/Web.
Other electronics: Former Commissioner, Federal Communications Commission, and Iowa City Broadband and Telecommunications Commission; publisher Media Watch and access magazines; contributing editor and host, PBS network series, "New Tech Times"; freelance and nationally syndicated columnist ("Communications Watch"); professor "Cyberspace Law," "Cyberspace Law Seminar" (and "Law of Electronic Media"); extra class amateur radio operator; computer hobbyist; community video camera operator.
INTERNATIONAL
As Maritime Administrator, Chair, NATO, Planning Board for Ocean Shipping, London and Washington (1964-66); F.C.C. commissioner (1966-73); member "Midwest Opinion Leaders" delegation to NATO, 1987; international lecturing for American Bar Association/Center for East European Law Initiative (ABA/CEELI), Leigh Lecture Bureau, United States Information Agency, and others.Travel, speaking, writing, broadcasting from Australia (1996), Austria (2006), Belgium, Bulgaria (1999), Canada, Chile (1996), Costa Rica (1994), Denmark, England, France, Georgia (Republic of, 1998), Germany (old East and West), Hong Kong (1996), Iceland, Italy, Japan (since 1965; most recently 2010), Kazakhstan (1993), Korea, Malaysia (1996), Mexico (2001), Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Philippines, Poland (1997), Puerto Rico, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland (2001), Thailand (1996), and Vietnam.
Broadcasting studies: Australia, Canada, England, Germany, Japan, Sweden. Writings translated into French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Vietnamese. Former board member, Volunteers in Technical Assistance (VITA); Fellow, World Academy of Art and Science (Executive Board member 1993-97). Member, Supplemental International and Comparative Law Faculty, University of Iowa College of Law International and Comparative Law Program.
K-12 EDUCATION
Johnson was elected to the Board of Directors, Iowa City [Iowa] Community School District for a three-year term, 1998-2001. During this term he wrote bi-weekly columns on K-12 education and school board issues for the Iowa City Press-Citizen, 1998-2001. [Note: The personal "School Board" Web site he maintained needs reorganization and updates to broken links (it did, and will in the future, link not only to columns, memos and School Board writing, but also hundreds of others' educational policy research Web sites).
LABOR AND PUBLIC INTEREST
Reputation as Maritime Administrator and FCC Commissioner as outspoken consumer advocate (e.g., Professor John Kenneth Galbraith once characterized Johnson as "citizens' least frightened friend in Washington"). Subsequent activities as Chair, National Citizens Committee for Broadcasting and National Citizens Communications Lobby further established credentials with "public interest movement." Forty-five-year informal association with Ralph Nader. Government responsibilities and subsequent coalition-building efforts often included organized labor; had unprecedented party primary support from UAW in 1974 Congressional race, local labor support in 1998 Iowa City School Board election.LEGAL EXPERIENCE AND HONORS
[U.S. Supreme Court Justice Hugo L. Black.] Iowa Bar Association Citizenship Awardee, 1951. LL.B., 1958, University of Texas, Austin; articles editor, Texas Law Review; Order of the Coif; Phi Delta Phi. Law clerk to U.S. Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit, Judge John R. Brown, Houston and New Orleans, 1958-59. Law clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Hugo L. Black, Washington, D.C., 1959-60. Associate, Covington & Burling, Washington, D.C., 1963-64. Chairman, Maritime Subsidy Board, 1964-66. Commissioner, Federal Communications Commission, 1966-73. Law professor, University of California, Berkeley, 1960-63; Georgetown University, 1971-73; University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, 1976; University of Iowa, 1981-. Member of the Bar (now inactive status): U.S. Supreme Court, 1963; Iowa, 1974; District of Columbia, 1963; Texas, 1958.
ORGANIZATIONS, AFFILIATIONS
(Present and former) Advocacy Institute, American Association of Retired Persons, American Civil Liberties Union, Amnesty International, Aspen Institute, Center for Science in the Public Interest, Carter Center, Center for Media Education, Citizen Works (including Corporate Reform Commission), Coalition on Alcohol Advertising, Committee to Open the Channel from People to Congress, Common Cause (former national board member), Common Cause of Iowa, Communications Consortium, Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility, Cultural Environmental Movement, D.C. Bar, FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting), Hightower and Associates, Institute for Public Accuracy, Iowa City Public Library Friends Foundation, Iowa Civil Liberties Union (former board member), Iowa Democratic Party, Iowa Law School Foundation, Johnson County Democrats, Johnson County United Way, Kazakhstan Media Project, Media Foundation (Adbusters), Melrose Avenue Neighborhood Association, New Pioneer Coop, Planet Central Television, Project Censored (judge), Public Citizen, Public Citizen Health Research Group, Time Dollars, Unitarian-Universalist Society (Iowa City, IA), UI Project on the Rhetoric of Inquiry, University of Texas Law Alumni Association, Volunteers in Technical Assistance (VITA; board member), War and Peace Foundation, Western Behavioral Sciences Institute International Leadership Forum, Working Assets Long Distance, World Academy of Art and Science (board member). And see, above: "Academic and Writing Experience," and "Legal Experience and Honors." See generally, "Affiliations."POLITICAL EXPERIENCE
Experience at virtually every level from Precinct Captain (Austin, Texas, 1950s; Iowa City, Iowa, 1980s), City (Iowa City Broadband and Telecommunications Commissioner, 1981-87), County (successful school board campaign and election 1998, political party county central committee, executive committee, platform committee chair), State (various campaigns of others), Congressional District (candidate Iowa Third District, 1974 primary), U.S. Senate and House (briefly U.S. Senate candidate, 1972; Congressional testimony on dozens of occasions as agency head or public interest organization representative), Party National Committee (board member, DNC Harriman Communications Center, Washington, D.C.), Presidential campaigns (since 1948; in 1964 as member of President Johnson's administration; 1976 coverage of Republican and Democratic National Conventions for National Public Radio) and internationally (Chair, NATO Planning Board for Ocean Shipping, 1964-66; "Midwest Opinion Leader" delegate to NATO, 1986; Humphrey Institute "Rethinking Global Governance" project; Volunteers in Technical Assistance (VITA) former board member; World Academy of Art and Science fellow).
Three-time Presidential appointee: U.S. Maritime Administrator (President Lyndon Johnson Administration); Federal Communications Commission Commissioner (Johnson Administration; carry-over to Nixon Administration); Presidential Advisor, White House Conference on Libraries and Information Services (President Jimmy Carter Administration).PRINT JOURNALISM, BROADCASTING EXPERIENCE
Author, How to Talk Back to Your Television Set (1970; 2013) and Test Pattern for Living (1972; 2013); publisher access magazine, 1975-77; nationally syndicated columnist, "Communications Watch," 1982-86 (Gannett; Register and Tribune; Cowles; King Features syndicates); local columnist, Iowa City Press-Citizen (K-12 education and school board issues, 1998-2001); applicant, NASA Journalist in Space Program; articles in such popular publications as Atlantic, Boston Review, Harpers, The Nation, The New Republic, The New York Times, Parade, Progressive, Saturday Review, The Washington Post and Wired. Some writing translated into French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Vietnamese. Regular contributor of op ed columns to various newspapers.Host and contributing editor, PBS national network TV series, "New Tech Times," 1983-84; radio commentaries, National Public Radio, 1974-78, 1983-86; radio debates with Pat Buchanan (WRC-AM, summer 1976); guest on such network and syndicated shows as The Advocates, Dick Cavett, Face the Nation, Good Morning America, Merv Griffin, Kup's Show, Chris Lydon's "Connection," MacNeil-Lehrer, Bill Moyers Journal, ABC Nightline, Over Easy, Tom Snyder's Tomorrow Show, Steve Allen, Phil Donahue, Mike Douglas and over 200 local television and radio programs; over 1000 public lectures as public official and through The Leigh Bureau.
Only FCC Commissioner ever featured on the cover of the Rolling Stone (April 1, 1971). Judge, Project Censored (1975-). Informal working relationships over the years with various Hollywood producers, directors, writers and actors. Teaching in departments of communication studies and theater.
PUBLIC HEALTH
Co-Director, Institute for Health, Behavior and Environmental Policy, 1990-93 (projects on children's use of tobacco, handgun injuries, human genome public policy, risk assessment, television impact on health behavior). As FCC Commissioner helped establish "anti-smoking" public service announcements, credited with decline in U.S. tobacco use. Author, "A Public Health Response to Handgun Injuries: Prescription -- Communication and Education," in American Journal of Preventive Medicine (May/June 1993). Participant, CDC&P working group on "Using Entertainment-Education to Reach a Generation at Risk" (February 1994).
Bibliography, Nicholas Johnson: A Bibliography (1952-1995) (333 pp.), available at Web site and in print; includes books, chapters, articles, appearances, radio and TV. Most writing and transcripts from April 1996 to present available in full text from Web site, see "Recent Publications," and for over 1000 blog entries (2006-present) http://FromDC2Iowa.blogspot.com.
TEACHING
Courses previously taught: Administrative Law, Agency and Partnership, Broadcast History, Broadcast Regulation, Constitutional Law, Corporations, Cyber and Electronics Law, Cyberspace Law Seminar, Economics of Law Practice Seminar, Entertainment Law and Business, Law of Electronic Media, Mass Communications Law, Oil and Gas Law, Sports Law.
[20150523; 20180401]Return to Nicholas Johnson Main Web Page www.nicholasjohnson.org