Canyon, Randall County
Born in Belhaven, North Carolina on Dec. 31, 1900, Claud Stuart Johnston began teaching in Oklahoma after graduating from the University of North Carolina. Fieldwork for the University of Oklahoma prepared Johnson for the Earth Science Department chair at West Texas State Teachers College, where from 1934-39, he also taught courses, secured federal relief program funding for projects, and supervised programs with his wife, Margaret (Counts). Materials they collected formed the core of the Paleontology Collection at the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum. Johnston returned to Oklahoma to finish a doctoral degree, but puzzlingly left for Boston, Massachusetts, where he died weeks later on July 24, 1939. (2010)