Viva Stanley Johanson.
Still the King after 63 years.
Written by Christopher Roberts
Art by MAX-O-MATIC
After 63 years in the classroom, Stanley Johanson not only has nothing left to prove, but he scarcely has anything more he can achieve. He’s among the most influential and enduring Texas Law professors in the school’s 140-plus-year history—which is saying something for a school that’s boasted Charles Alan Wright, Page Keeton, Bill Powers, and Johanson’s longtime contemporary, Ernest Smith—and he’s won every accolade imaginable, including a slew of Lifetime Achievement recognitions and a handful of Hall of Fame inductions.
He was, naturally, a member of the inaugural class of the university’s Academy of Distinguished Teachers. In fact, he turns out to have been the inspiration to create the academy in the first place.
“In my opinion, Stanley was and is the best teacher ever at Texas Law,” says Mark Yudof, who served as Johanson’s dean from 1984 to 1994 before becoming UT Austin’s provost. In 1995, Yudof was determined to recognize great teaching across the university and so started the Academy. Membership remains the highest honor the university can bestow on a professor.
“When I’m with alumni, I’m inevitably asked, ‘Is Stanley sill there?’”
Dean Bobby Chesney
Can’t Help Falling in Love
“The truth is that Stanley was my inspiration to do that,” Yudof adds.
Those expecting to read about Johanson’s retirement must continue waiting. At age 92, he’s wrapped up another fall semester of teaching his legendary Wills and Estates class and is hard at work on edits to the latest edition of Johanson’s Texas Estates Code Annotated, the authoritative text on the topic. He’s now been named the Dean’s Distinguished Scholar by Dean Bobby Chesney.
Chesney has been Johanson’s colleague for nearly 20 years and considers his impact and longevity something to which he aspires. “When I’m with alumni, I’m inevitably asked, ‘Is Stanley still there?’” says Chesney. “That’s the kind of recognition anyone who steps in front of a classroom can only dream of. It’s awe-inspiring.”
Johanson’s not just a crooner; he’s a composer. One of his hits is this
tune “borrowed” from Camelot, which he sings to students capping off the semester.
“Whatever I Would Leave You.”
If ever I would leave you
It wouldn’t be intestate
If it were intestate
I never would go
The shares to be taken
By my distributes
Would produce consternation
And I’d be displeased
Whatever I would leave you
It wouldn’t be in probate
If it were in probate
The neighbors would know
How much did I leave you?
How much you could spend?
For it’s all public record
Right down to the end
And could I trust an executor to hold the line
Against a tax collector screaming, everything is mine?
Whatever I would leave you
It wouldn’t be in trust, dear
If it were in trust, dear
I’d lose all control
Not intestate or probate
Not in trust, for a fee
Perhaps I’ll choose
To spend it on me
Music by Frederick Loewe;
Lyrics by Stanley Johanson
Pompadour and Circumstance
As famous as Johanson is for his teaching and writing, for many the enduring memory of his class is the regular end-of-semester cameo from Johanson’s alter ego—The King.
“You’re sitting in class and the teaching assistant comes in to tell you that Professor Johanson is out and there’s a guest lecturer,” recalls Michelle Hood ’15. “And then ‘Elvis’ appears.”
Elvis doesn’t just live in the classroom. “We were heading to my son’s bachelor party in Vegas,” recalls Johanson’s son-in-law Tim Klitch. “It’s me, my sons, and Elvis. Stanley was in full costume in the airport, on the plane, and the trip.”
And people loved it. “So many folks were trying to get a picture with him, we nearly missed our flight! That’s star power,” adds Klitch.
His Way
Johanson is on a research leave this semester, but he’s not kicking back. “He’s just as busy as ever,” says wife Gerrie, who celebrated 70 years of marriage to her King this past year.
To celebrate, the couple are preparing for a travel adventure with as many of their six kids and 13 grandchildren as possible. And he’s thrilled to be gathering with at least a half-dozen former students from his very first Texas Law class from the fall of 1963 when in Austin for their 60th law school reunion this April.
But those are B-sides for the classroom legend. “I’m pleased and proud to be the Dean’s Distinguished Scholar, but what I’m really excited about is my class this fall,” says Johanson, beaming. “Teaching is what I love!”