Walter S. Johnson

Walter S. Johnson (1884–1978) was a notable businessman and philanthropist in San Francisco, California. He was one of the founders of the American Forest Products Corporation, a Fortune 500 company in the 1950s and 1960s, and of Friden, Inc., the Friden Calculating Machine Company, which developed and sold electro-mechanical numerators and office equipment, predecessors of today's computerized counterparts. As a philanthropist, Walter S. Johnson is most famous for his 1959 contribution to the preservation of the Palace of Fine Arts, an act that ensured the endurance of the iconic San Francisco landmark.

Walter S. Johnson was born in East Saginaw, Michigan in 1884. His father Alfred Johnson was a musician who wanted to move west and buy a farm. His mother Mary Augusta Calkins (sometimes spelled Caulkins), an educated daughter of a journalist, had no interest in a farming life. Despite her wishes, the family moved to California and eventually settled on a small farm in Tulare.

Mary became deeply unhappy and moved to San Francisco to pursue a newspaper career, leaving Walter and his four siblings in the temporary care of their father. Mary was hired by The San Francisco Call newspaper and was a regular contributor, reviewing books and interviewing authors and celebrities (The Call later became The San Francisco Call-Bulletin and eventually The San Francisco Examiner.) In the late 1890s, she had the good fortune to work with Fremont Older, the charismatic editor of The Call Bulletin. Older was remarkably unbiased toward women in the newspaper field, believing "whoever could best do the story got the job". Mary not only interviewed such names as Jack London, Gertrude Atherton, and Sarah Bernhart, but also got the daring "scoop" on the subjects of renowned trials and events including murderers and pugilists.

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