Dolores Johnson

Dolores Johnson is a lifelong resident of Huntington.  She attended Douglass High School but was among some of the first Black students to attend and graduate from Huntington High School in the 1960s. She earned a bachelor’s degree in French and Spanish and went on to earn a master’s degree in English. She later obtained her Ph.D. in Linguistics and Rhetoric from Indiana University in Pennsylvania.

Dolores began her career teaching Spanish at Oley Junior High School for one year before teaching for the Huntington Job Corps for two years. She also worked for the Department of Health and Human Services before going to Huntington High to teach for 20 years. In 1989, she began teaching in the English Department at Marshall University, where she taught for 17 years until she retired. Within those years of teaching and study, she developed a special interest in the teaching of writing through her affiliation with the National Writing Project. At Marshall, she served as the director of the English Department’s Writing Program from 1995 until 2006. Since that time, she had done some part-time teaching.

One of her most memorable post-teaching adventures was an honors course she designed called, “The Language of Quilting,” which combined her love of teaching with her new love in the world of quilting, specifically art quilting. Her new passion has resulted in several honorable mentions in the world of art quilting. She especially enjoys making fabric portraits of friends and family. She and Sandra Clements are the co-founders of the St. Peter Claver Peacemakers Quilting Group.

Johnson has been active in her community: director of the National Writing Project at Marshall University; president of the NAACP from 1980-89; president of the Black Professional Businesswomen’s Club, Huntington Branch; director of Writing Programs at Marshall University; member of St. Joseph’s Board of Education; and board member and docent at the Huntington Museum of Art.