R. Ellis Johnson*

In 1909, R. Ellis Johnson was born in Osawatomie, Kansas, where most local men, including his father, worked in the Missouri Pacific Railroad yards. While his father was at work, Johnson and his 10 siblings ran the family farm.

Johnson dreamed of becoming a railway man from childhood and understood that he could achieve his dream only through hard work and diligence. While in grade school, his teacher allowed him, on two occasions, to combine two years of schoolwork into one year, which consequently allowed Johnson to begin high school at age 12.

Upon graduating, Ellis took a job as assistant file clerk at the Missouri Pacific Railroad depot in Osawatomie. Eleven years later, he moved on to become secretary to the general manager of Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad. Johnson steadily rose in status there, holding nearly every job in the railroad's operating department. He made it his mission to carefully study the job above him, so that when a promotion came, he could move into it with confidence.

When Johnson became president of Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad in 1961, he knew most of the company's 16,000 employees by first name. During his career, Johnson also served as director of the Kansas City Terminal Railway Co., the Waterloo Railway Co., the Railway Express Agency Directors Association of American Railroads, and the American Railway Engineers Association.