Ken Rhon Johnson (’86, ’92 M.S., ’02 Ph.D.), 60, of Alpine, a former lecturer in the history department, died in May 2022. He first began working at UNT in 1989 and served as a teaching assistant, teaching fellow, adjunct and lecturer from 1997 to 2014. He was a member of the Renaissance Society of America and taught classes on the Italian Renaissance, the Enlightenment, the ancient Near East, world history and U.S. history. He also served as undergraduate advisor in the department. He was interested in paleography and performed original research and translation in Italian and Latin. A three-time UNT alumnus, he earned a bachelor’s in literature with a minor in political science, a master’s in history with a minor in English, and a doctorate in modern European history. His 2002 dissertation -- Lucca in the Signoria of Paolo Guinigi, 1400-1430 -- won the Arts and Sciences Dean’s Dissertation Award for Research Achievement in the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences. He also ran marathons and loved to travel, with the island of Crete being his favorite destination.
Ken Rhon Johnson (’86, ’92 M.S., ’02 Ph.D.), 60, of Alpine, a former lecturer in the history department, died in May 2022. He first began working at UNT in 1989 and served as a teaching assistant, teaching fellow, adjunct and lecturer from 1997 to 2014. He was a member of the Renaissance Society of America and taught classes on the Italian Renaissance, the Enlightenment, the ancient Near East, world history and U.S. history. He also served as undergraduate advisor in the department. He was interested in paleography and performed original research and translation in Italian and Latin. A three-time UNT alumnus, he earned a bachelor’s in literature with a minor in political science, a master’s in history with a minor in English, and a doctorate in modern European history. His 2002 dissertation -- Lucca in the Signoria of Paolo Guinigi, 1400-1430 -- won the Arts and Sciences Dean’s Dissertation Award for Research Achievement in the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences. He also ran marathons and loved to travel, with the island of Crete being his favorite destination.
