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Marian Dettman Johnson
2002 Outstanding Service to Alma Mater

Marian Dettman Johnson has been a class agent for the Dakota Wesleyan University Class of 1950 for nearly seven years. She writes great letters to help keep her class informed about DWU.

Johnson is always available and willing to help in any way to promote the university. She presented information on genealogy at the 1998 Alumni Days and will present an Alumni College session about writing memoirs at this summer's Alumni Days.

Following her graduation from DWU, Johnson taught music in public schools at Mitchell; Sioux Falls; Westfield, Iowa; and Gibbon, Neb. She retired last year from her position as Elderhostel Lecturer at the University of Nebraska at Kearney. She also was a live-in director and curator of the Frank House, a historic museum owned by the university.

She is the past president of the Buffalo County Historical Society and is a past board member of the Trails and Rails Museum. She is a member of the Nebraska State Historical Society, where she served as a board member for historic sites. Johnson represented the state of Nebraska for two terms as a member of the board of advisers for the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Johnson has written several historical articles, which were published by the Buffalo County Historical Society. She and her husband, Dr. Halvin S. Johnson, now deceased, jointly received the University of Nebraska Distinguished Service Award in 1990.

Johnson is currently the president of the Pony Express Condominium Association and is a board member of the Golden K Kiwanis group in Kearney, where she lives.