The Johnson Family Legacy

The Gift that Transformed a School

In 1982, the then Graduate School of Business and Public Administration defined a new mission and sharper focus. The faculty voted to eliminate all academic programs outside of business, but implementing the new mission in a competitive marketplace would require additional resources.

Two years later, the Johnson family made a $20-million endowment gift to the school, at the time the largest such gift ever to a business school. The Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management was established.

Johnson is named for Samuel Curtis Johnson (1833-1919), who began his career as a manufacturer of wooden parquet floors in Racine, Wisconsin. In 1886, he decided to extend his company’s product line into wax to care for the floors he produced. The floor-care products soon outsold the flooring, and the international consumer products firm of S. C. Johnson & Son, Inc. was born.

Samuel C. Johnson, AB ’50, led his family in making the historic gift naming Cornell’s graduate business school for his great grandfather. In a 1988 volume on the history of his family’s company, Sam wrote of his progenitor: “He held the notion that business should put back something into the communities in which they are located. He also believed that a corporation should give back something to the broader group of consumers for which it has earned profits. Providing jobs in a community, he stated, while certainly important, is simply not enough.”

Sam Johnson: Leading by Example

Following decades of service and generosity to Cornell University and Johnson, and after a long and difficult battle with cancer, Samuel Curtis Johnson passed away at his home in Racine, Wisconsin, on Saturday, May 22, 2004.

While Johnson is named after Sam’s great grandfather and the founder of S. C. Johnson & Son, Inc., Sam himself epitomized the type of leader Johnson aspires to produce: a truly transformational leader who leaves his mark on the world of business. When Sam Johnson took over the helm of family-owned S. C. Johnson & Son, Inc. in 1966, the company had annual sales of about $171 million; today, the Johnson Family Enterprises generate annual sales of more than $11 billion.

A legendary leader, Sam Johnson was widely recognized for making the business world a better place. He was a founding member of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, and was appointed by President Clinton to the U.S. President’s Council on Sustainable Development in 1993. He received a Lifetime Environmental Award from the United Nations Environmental Programme and was inducted into the U.S. National Business Hall of Fame.

At Johnson, Sam’s legacy endures. He and the Johnson family are an integral part of our identity; their values and ideas shaped many of the programs and initiatives that helped transform the school – from three endowed professorships, to the $7.5 million to support Johnson’s program in sustainable business.

Sam’s spirit also lives on in Sage Hall, the beautiful building that he helped transform as the new home for Johnson, and we remember Sam’s generosity not only in terms of financial support, but also his many visits, thoughtful guidance, and deep and abiding friendship. As emeritus Johnson Dean Robert Swieringa put it, “As the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management, we are linked with Sam not only by his name, but also by his aspirations. We carry his legacy with pride.”

Today’s Johnson Family and the School

The Johnson family continues to support Johnson through service, and inspire by example.

The family’s commitment to sustainable business is so profound that seldom does an event or even panel discussion on the topic occur on campus without the presence of a representative from the family company.

H. Fisk Johnson, ’79, MEng ’80, MS ’82, MBA ’84, PhD ’86, is an active member of the Johnson Advisory Council, an engaged body of about 40 alumni, friends, and school leadership. Fisk, son of the late Sam Johnson, is chairman and CEO of S. C. Johnson & Son, Inc.

Helen Johnson-Leipold, AB ’78, chairman and CEO of Johnson Outdoors, Inc., and chairman, Johnson Financial Group, regularly visits the Cornell campus to share her expertise and experience as a 25-year marketing and senior-management veteran. In March 2006, she delivered the keynote address at the annual Entrepreneurship@Cornell Celebration. In April 2004, she represented the Johnson Family at a celebration honoring the 20th anniversary of the $20-million endowment gift made to Johnson by her father Sam Johnson and the family.