Distinguished Engineer
Hometown: Ceresco, Nebraska
Emory Johnson earned his B.S. in civil engineering form the University of Nebraska in 1936 and received his M.S. from the University of Michigan in 1941. Following his college graduation, he worked for the State of Nebraska in the Highway Department and in the Irrigation Office. In 1937, he started teaching on the college level and taught at the Missouri Schools of Mines and Metallurgy, the University of Kansas and Colorado A&M.
He served as Head of the South Dakota State University Civil Engineering Department from 1947 to 1979. During his career at SDSU, he served as faculty adviser to the ASCE student chapter and instituted a number of short courses for engineers and technicians in the areas of highways, concrete, structures, bituminous materials, water and waste water. He also served as an adviser for Sigma Tau, Chi Epsilon and Tau Beta Pi. Johnson also spent six summers with the Boeing Airplane Co. where he contributed to the structural work in the tool engineering program. At that time, Boeing’s primary projects were the B-52 bomber and the first commercial jets.
He was active in numerous professional societies including: president and secretary- treasurer of the Northwestern Section of ASCE; president of the South Dakota Society of Engineers and Architects and executive secretary of the South Dakota Engineering Society.