The Margaret and Paul A. Johnston Professorships were established in 1987 by a bequest of more than $10 million from Paul A. Johnston’s estate. The series of professorships in the College of Arts and Sciences honors retired faculty members. The number of professorships varies, as does the academic disciplines to which they are assigned. Johnston specified that the retired faculty members for whom professorships are named must be living when the professorships are created.
Today, the market value of the Johnston Professorships fund is more than $75 million, making it the largest endowment in the College of Arts and Sciences. In 2014-2015, 42 distinguished professors were supported by the fund.
Margaret and Paul A. Johnston
Born in Johnston County in 1916, Paul Johnston grew up in Smithfield, N.C. After service in the Armed Forces during World War II, he came to Carolina, where he earned a B.A. in 1950 and an LL.B/J.D. in 1952. At UNC, he met and married Margaret McGirt of Chapel Hill.
Following one year in a New York law firm, Johnston returned to Carolina to join the university faculty as an assistant professor of public law and assistant director of the Institute of Government. In 1954, Gov. Luther H. Hodges appointed him executive and administrative assistant and later named him the first director of the Department of Administration. When Hodges went to Washington, D.C., in 1960 to serve as President Kennedy’s secretary of commerce, Johnston went with him as his executive assistant.
From 1961 until 1965, Johnston held executive posts in the Martin-Marietta Corporation. He then became president of the Glen Alden Corporation. In 1972, he formed Johnston Industries Inc., which manufactured cotton and synthetic fabrics, transportation equipment and structural steel fabrication. He was chairman of the board and chief executive officer of the corporation until his death in 1985.
Johnston served on the boards of directions of several organizations at Carolina, including the General Alumni Association, the Arts and Sciences Foundation and the Board of Visitors. In 1980, the university presented him with its Distinguished Alumnus Award.
A graduate of Chapel Hill High School, Margaret McGirt Johnston graduated from UNC in 1938. For many years, she was a secretary at the university. Margaret died in 1985, less than two months after her husband. The Johnstons had one son, Paul Jr.
The Johnstons’ generosity to the university extended well beyond the Johnston Professorships. They endowed the Albert Coates Professorship and the Gladys Hall Coates Professorship, both in the School of Government, and the Henry Brandis Professorship in Law. They also made substantial gifts to the Kenan-Flagler Business School, including a professorship honoring Luther Hodges.
