Merlin the Magician

Grantsburg loses the man with his thumb on the community and education in his heart.

Merlin Johnson, 1930 – 2021Did Merlin Johnson have a philosophy about life?

If he did, maybe the 90-year old Grantsburg educator and former Falun farm boy revealed it during an interview in 2007 in the Inter-County Leader.

“I used to love to milk cows,” he said. “But I found out that they don’t stay milked,” Johnson told reporter Wayne Anderson.

Johnson, who passed away this week at the Burnett Medical Center spent his career “milking” all he could from life, fully knowing there would always be more to do.

“Merlin loved his town and was a positive influence wherever he went. He was a man that always seemed to be larger than life,” said the WE ARE Network’s founder Bob Rombach on the network’s WE ARE Grantsburg Facebook page. “His smile was ever-present and he always made you feel like the most important person in the room. If we could all live a little more like that, it would be a better world,” Rombach related.

Johnson was many things, a dedicated church man, a husband for nearly 64 years, a tireless Rotarian, politician, and community promoter. But most of all, he was an educator, a man with a deep thirst for knowledge with an ability to pass it on to anyone who would listen — and a few who wouldn’t.

For 29 years Johnson was truly “Merlin the Magician,” guiding and directing the Grantsburg area’s educational community as superintendent from 1962 to 1991.

Retired teacher and current member of the Grantsburg School Board Russell Erickson put everything into perspective.

“He’s the one who brought me to Grantsburg. When I was starting my teaching career. I had an offer from Inver Grove School District. But I stopped to talk to Merlin and he told me, ‘You’re not a city boy.’ He said he had an opening in the sixth grade and he made me an offer.” When Erickson retired, there he was, right back in Johnson’s kitchen, with “Merlin helping me fill out my retirement papers. It started in his kitchen and it ended in his kitchen,” Erickson chuckled.

That’s the way Merlin Johnson operated. There were always more cows to milk.

There was even “magic” in the way he conducted his personal life. In 1944 a little pixy dust was sprinkled on Johnson and he never shook it off.

He was an underclassman when newly-crowned freshman homecoming Queen Carol Thor, too shy to ask him herself, used sister Alice Mae to ask Merlin to be the king.

He accepted, setting up a future marriage that would last for over 64 years.

“That’s what started it all,” Johnson told reporter Anderson in 2007.

Merlin and Carol had two children — Allan, born in 1962, and Janet, who was born in 1965.

After serving as principal at Danbury Elementary School from 1951 to ’52, Johnson was called to serve in the U. S. Army in Korea for two years. He returned home to teach math in Siren, then Grantsburg, and he and Carol were married in 1957.

For five to six years Johnson served the school district under Superintendent A. T. Nelson, one of Grantsburg’s legendary educators.

“A. T. Nelson died during a school board meeting,” Erickson told The WE ARE Network, and Nelson’s death would become the beginning of Johnson’s nearly 30-year tenure at the helm of the district.

Initially, Johnson and Russell Satterlund shared duties, but eventually, Johnson was named superintendent and Satterlund principal.

Reporter Anderson may have described Johnson’s tenure best when he said, “Students loved and feared him for 29 years.”

Anderson added, “He retired in 1991 with the thanks and admiration of several generations.”

Initially, Johnson received his bachelor’s degree from Augsburg College in Minneapolis in 1951. In 1962 he was presented his “Degree of Master of Education” from Wisconsin State College at Superior. He completed his work in mathematics at Purdue University in 1959 and transferred to superior to receive his degree in administration.

Before taking the Grantsburg leadership role, Johnson was not just a teacher, but a mathematical leader in the area. He was reported as the “teacher chairman” for area math teachers during a Polk-Burnett county superintendent’s In-Service forum at Unity Schools. This was just one of many leadership positions he assumed.

Perhaps Johnson’s biggest challenge during his tenure came in 1984 when the Grantsburg High and Junior High School was gutted by fire and arson was suspected.

The $500,000 fire was reported across the United States and Johnson was the center of attention. Johnson and school officials, “Found evidence of attempted arson. A window to the home economics room was broken and papers were soaked in fuel oil and set afire and tossed into the building,” Johnson told The Milwaukee Journal.

Not only was Johnson and the school board faced with replacing the structure and temporarily moving students to other facilities, but they found many records were destroyed in the fire.

No one was ever prosecuted for starting the fire as Johnson and the board began the arduous job of rebuilding.

In November of 1984, Johnson sent a newsletter to district residents in which he said, “The Open House was a huge success thanks to the beautiful weather and a big turnout of people. We hope you were able to attend; however, if you were not, please feel free to come anytime to see your new school.”

Former school Board member Stan Peer recalled the Johnson years. “I was on the school board when he was superintendent. We had a few problems but he always took care of them. He made it easy to be a school board member,” Peer said.

Later, Peer and Johnson would be long-time Grantsburg Rotarians, serving together on many community projects.

One of Johnson’s greatest honors came after his retirement. In 1995 when he was named the recipient of the Wisconsin Association of School District Administrator’s (WASDA) 1995 Distinguished Service Award.

“Needless to say, Merlin’s contributions to WASDA, while serving as a school district administrator were far greater than the criteria listed,” said a WASDA news release.

But Merlin Johnson wasn’t always found in a classroom or an office. He was equally at home on the courts and fields where the Pirates seemed to excel.

He and Head Coach Bob Olson in 1957 signed on to “coach all sports — football, basketball, baseball, and track.” Olson, “Will again be ably assisted by Johnson,” said a newspaper article.

“The football squad finished in a three-way championship tie; the basketball team finished in a tie for second; the baseballers wound up in a championship tie and the track squad grabbed undisputed possession of second place. Johnson assisted in tutoring these top-flight teams and directed the B team basketballers on his own. The Bees won their division championship.”

While he may have retired from education in 1991, he wasn’t finished using his incredible talents in other ways.

For 10 years he served on the Burnett County Board of Supervisors, where he was vice-chairman, and served for many years as one of the organizers for Grantsburg’s Syttende Mai footrace. He was the “voice” of that race. Others recall hearing him on WCCO Radio giving weather reports from Grantsburg on cold winter mornings.

“He was a wonderful guy, always had a joke or something,” said Erickson, who is intending to suggest the Grantsburg School Board name one of its buildings after Johnson.

As a member of the board, Erickson and the others are planning to float a referendum to re-model and consolidate school facilities. The naming of buildings in Johnson’s honor could be considered when the project is completed.

“That kind of honor should be given for his contributions to Grantsburg,” Erickson added.

In 2003 Johnson was elected to the Inter-County Cooperative Publishing Association, which included the Inter-County Leader newspaper.

Not content to rest on his laurels, Johnson lent his expertise to the school district for the rest of his life. One of his assets was doing research. In 2009 he wrote a synopsis on how Grantsburg came to be named the “Pirates.”

“There was a contest during the 1940-41 school year where students, and possibly anyone, could recommend a name for such use. Freshman Ernest Brosch suggested the name ‘Pirates.’ One of the judges suggested that the world ‘Purple’ be placed with the name, so ‘Purple Pirates’ was chosen. Ernest Brosch won the contest and received a season ticket for sports attendance as the prize.”

In typical Johnson form, he reported talking to classmates of Brosch for confirmation. “They remembered him as the winner,” Johnson wrote. He also talked to Brosch to verify the information.

After retirement, Johnson was quoted in the Inter-County Leader as saying, “I’ve been richly blessed with family, and richly blessed with church support and richly blessed with my occupation.” He added, “I’ve loved my job very much and I had good people working with me and for me. And, boy, that means a lot.”

Just as he began his career with the milking cows theory, Merlin Johnson ended it with more sage wisdom. “I learned that life is a lot simpler when you plow around the stumps,” he said. Then added more advice. “Don’t wrestle with pigs. You get all muddy, and the pigs love it.”