Allan Griswold Johnson ’68

Allan Griswold Johnson ’68 died December 24, 2017, at his home in Canton, Connecticut.After a childhood in Washington, D.C., and Oslo, Norway,Allan came to Dartmouth from Andover, Massachusetts. A sociology major, he participated in ROTC and the Ledyard Canoe Club. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan after completing his dissertation on women’s roles in Mexico City, where he lived for eight months. Allan taught sociology at Wesleyan University and later at Hartford College for Women. He was an influential figure in the pro-feminist men’s movement and broader progressive movements of social justice. He was committed to examining systems of oppression and privilege. In the late 1970s Allan began volunteering at a rape crisis service, and later was a consultant with the National Center for the Prevention of Rape. An author of multiple books, he is best known for his nonfiction The Gender Knot: Unraveling Our Patriarchal Legacy and his novels The First Thing and the Last, which addressed domestic violence, and Nothing Left to Lose, about an American family in crisis during the Vietnam War. Allan was an avid swimmer, and swam a mile a day until just before his death. He also studied jazz piano as an adult. He is survived by his partner of 37 years, Nora Jamieson; children Paul, Karla and Emily; and four grandchildren. “He was a man of integrity and depth of soul,” wrote Nora, “who carried and wrote of suffering, creating exquisite beauty that pierced the heart.”