Pictured: Philanthropists Randy (DeKalb High School class of ’54) and Judi Johnson. 

As a way to give back to the community through education, the DeKalb County Community Foundation is pleased to announce a newly created scholarship fund by Randy and Judi Johnson. Benefiting graduating seniors from DeKalb High School, the Randy Johnson Scholarship Fund supports students pursuing a degree in science, technology, engineering or mathematics.

Creating a scholarship fund was one way for Randy and his wife to give back to the community and leave a lasting impact on education.

“Without the incredible support of my teachers and the administration of DeKalb Township High School (present day DeKalb High School), I never could have succeeded as a journalist and teacher,” said Randy Johnson.

The Johnson’s have been a part of the DeKalb community for many years and during that time, have developed strong ties with DeKalb High School. Randy’s father, Joe Johnson, grew up in a house on North First Street across from the “old” high school. Years later, Randy’s grandmother Olive ran a boarding house for school teachers out of this same house.

As a high school student, Randy was involved in speech and debate, band, drama, and the yearbook. During his sophomore year, he had the opportunity to begin a career in journalism as a sports reporter for the DeKalb Daily Chronicle. For the next six years Randy became an employee of the newspaper and expanded his expertise to photography and general news writing. Randy went on to enroll at Northern Illinois State College (present day Northern Illinois University) in a teacher education program where he graduated with a bachelor of science, majoring in mathematics and physics. For the next 37 years Randy used his degree as a high school teacher, college professor, school administrator, and as an educational technology consultant.

To date, over 65 scholarship funds have been created through the Community Foundation. Scholarship funds are an easy way to support and promote further education of the youth in our community. To discuss setting up a fund that meets your charitable interests, or to contribute to an existing fund, please contact Dan Templin, Executive Director, 815-748-5383 or dan@dekalbccf.org.