Donation Honors Long-Time Warren Educator

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Courtesy of Media Services

Scholarship — Loran Johnson (seated) of Warren presents a check representing the first contribution to the Loran Johnson Endowed Scholarship Fund to Chancellor Jack Lassiter (right). Also pictured are (left) R. David Ray, provost, and Dr. Peggy Doss, dean of the School of Education.

 “Loran’s Boys” have decided it’s time to pay back their mentor.

   Loran L. Johnson of Warren, a retired vocational agriculture teacher and the founder of the Bradley County Pink Tomato Festival, has been honored by a group of former students with the creation of an endowed scholarship in his honor at the University of Arkansas at Monticello.

   The Loran L. Johnson Endowed Scholarship will be presented annually by the UAM Foundation Fund to a teacher education major in the P-4 early childhood teacher licensure area. The recipient must be from a 14-county area in southeast Arkansas, with preference given to students from Bradley, Drew, Cleveland and Lincoln Counties.

   Students receiving the scholarship must pledge to teach in the 14-county area in southeast Arkansas.

   The group calling itself Loran’s Boys includes such individuals as Lu Hardin, president of the University of Central Arkansas; Dr. Joel Anderson, chancellor of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock; Monticello businessman Charles Dearman and Dale Nicholson of Little Rock, general manager of KATV.

   “There are hundreds of ‘Loran’s Boys’ who traditionally meet each October in Warren to honor their mentor and friend,” Chancellor Jack Lassiter said. “This is a wonderful honor for a man who has been a positive influence on the lives of so many. Mr. Johnson has taught generations of students and has obviously left an indelible mark on their lives. This is a scholarship fund that I am sure will continue to grow as more of his former students become aware of its creation.”

   Johnson has been a long-time benefactor of UAM, presenting scholarships to agriculture students through the Saline-Ouachita Valley Livestock Association.

   As director of the Warren Chamber of Commerce in the early 1950s, Johnson conceived the idea of the Pink Tomato Festival as a way to market the now-famous Bradley pink tomato and to bring tourism dollars to Bradley County. One of the longest continuous-running festivals in the state, the Pink Tomato Festival will celebrate its 50th anniversary next June.

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