Rev. George Johnson, undated photo. Perhaps the most influential voice in American Catholic education throughout the Great Depression and Second World War, Johnson also died young, at the age of 55, while delivering an address as Trinity College in 1944. Image: Special Collections, University Photographs, The Catholic University of America.

In 1922, St. Anthony’s parish in Brookland, Washington, D.C., established the Thomas E. Shields Memorial School in his name. Rev. George Johnson (1889-1944), a student of Shields, was largely responsible for the creation of the school, initially staffed by the Dominican Sisters. The school was a model school used to experiment in innovations in education, particularly those in the Catholic Education series written by Shields. Johnson himself maintained a work schedule as active as his predecessor. He became a professor in the Department of Education in 1921, and would also head the Department of Education of the National Catholic Welfare Conference in 1928, and the following year would be elected the Executive Secretary of the National Catholic Education Association (NCEA).

Perhaps the most influential voice in American Catholic education throughout the Great Depression and Second World War, Johnson, like his predecessor, died young, at the age of 55, while delivering an address at Washington, D.C.'s Trinity College in 1944.

Source:

John J. Convey, Professor of Education, “The Catholic University Department of Education, 1908-2021 (Unpublished manuscript, Catholic University of America Archives, 2021), Special Collections, The Catholic University of America, 3.