Alvanley Johnston

Alvanley Johnston
Johnston pictured in a 1934 Fortune magazine article
Born	(1875-05-12)12 May 1875 Seeley's Bay, Ontario, Canada
Died	17 September 1951(1951-09-17) (aged 76) Shaker Heights, Ohio, United States
Nationality	American
Occupation	Locomotive engineer, labor leader
Known for	Grand Chief Engineer of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers

Alvanley Johnston (12 May 1875 – 17 September 1951) was a Canadian / American locomotive engineer who became head of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers (BLE), a union that covered the United States and Canada, holding the title of Grand Chief Engineer from 1925 to 1950. During his tenure the Brotherhood recovered from financial problems, weathered the Great Depression and World War II, and held out for shorter hours and higher wages in a nationwide strike in 1946.

Alvanley Johnston was born on 12 May 1875 in Seeley's Bay, Ontario. The county borders on New York State. His parents were David and Annie (Jarrell) Johnston, both citizens of the United States. He attended elementary school in Seeley's Bay, then in 1888 his parents took him to the United States. In 1890 he returned to Ontario to attend business college at Brockville. He left the college in 1891. On 18 September 1892 he was hired by the Great Northern Railway as a callboy. He also worked as a wiper, and then was a locomotive engineer from 1897 to 1909. From 1909 to 1918 he was general chairman of the Great Northern Division of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers (BLE).

At the brotherhood's triennial convention in June 1924 the new office of President was created, and the former grand chief engineer Warren Stanford Stone was elected to this position. He was succeeded as grand chief engineer by L. G. Gritting. William B. Prenter was made first vice-president in charge of finance and H. T. Dougherty was made second vice-president in charge of insurance and pension departments. Stone remained overall leader of the Brotherhood. Stone died in 1925 and was succeeded by Prenter. In the reshuffle, Johnston became grand chief engineer.

Around this time an audit found that the Brotherhood's cooperative bank in New York had about $1 million of "doubtful paper" and other investments were also in poor shape. The executives decided to attempt a high-risk investment to make good the losses before the 91,000 union members learned of the problem. After some hesitations, they agreed to buy 30,511 acres (12,347 ha) of land in Venice, Florida, for $4 million, planning to develop it as a profitable resort. Much work was done, but the project and others launched at that time drained funds and forced the Brotherhood to sell valuable assets.