Teacher Leaders Honor Clifford Johnson with Memorial Recognizing His Father

Rupert "Bunny" Johnson

Clifford Johnson, trainer at Georgia State University, brought Reading Recovery to Georgia and taught the first Reading Recovery teacher leader training class in Georgia during the 1991–1992 academic year.  Over the next 14 years Johnson and his Georgia State University colleagues, Sue Duncan and Floretta Thornton-Reid, supervised the training and teaching of 60 teacher leaders.  These teacher leaders have trained hundreds of Reading Recovery teachers, and tens of thousands of struggling readers in Georgia, Tennessee, Florida, and Bermuda have benefited from their efforts. 

With this legacy of learning, teacher leaders at Georgia State University honored Johnson with contributions in memory of his father, Rupert “Bunny” Johnson. One of the teacher leaders, Janet Antman, said “Cliff is such an advocate for kids!” All of us have been working to keep Reading Recovery strong, but Dr. Johnson is a bulldog! He knows when to be diplomatic, but he never lets go when the issue is about the best thing for children.” 

Johnson recently said his father inspired him to be a teacher. "Dad taught me to respect education and the pursuit of knowledge. Growing up in the depression era-south was not easy for dad, so he instilled in his children the value of a good education and the importance of giving something in return to those in need,” Johnson said. The contributions to the Reading Recovery Fund given in “Bunny” Johnson’s memory will help RRCNA continue his legacy of advocacy, support of professional development, and strengthening Reading Recovery’s service to the most-vulnerable children. 

"Dad would be so pleased to know that my teacher leaders gave gifts in his name that will be used to help children who are having more than the usual difficulty learning to read and write," Johnson said.