Wisconsin's Ron Johnson: native Minnesotan, but few remember

U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson is a two-term Republican from Wisconsin, a staunch conservative who claimed the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riot was "by and large" a peaceful protest and that he would have been more concerned for his own safety if it had been Black Lives Matter protesters instead. A former corporate CEO in Oshkosh, he's recently been accused of spreading misinformation about COVID vaccines.

He's also a native Minnesotan.

"Johnson was born in Mankato, Minnesota, the son of Jeanette Elizabeth (nee Thisius) and Dale Robert Johnson," reads his Wikipedia page. It says he graduated from Edina High School (wrongly, it turns out — keep reading) and the University of Minnesota in 1977 (that part seems to be true).

Sensing that elusive local angle, I set out a few weeks ago to try to connect with some of Johnson's Edina classmates. I soon learned he didn't actually graduate from Edina — a reminder that Wikipedia isn't always right. The bio on Johnson's U.S. Senate page provides clarity: "He gained early acceptance to the University of Minnesota, so he skipped his senior year of High School."

Still, surely some Edina contemporaries remember a future U.S. senator in their ranks? Well, no. I connected by phone or e-mail with more than a dozen Edina '73 grads, which would have been Johnson's graduating year.

"I don't remember Ron Johnson," said Curt Barton — even though they are two of the four boys identified in a Latin Club picture from the '72 yearbook, when they were both juniors. The photo shows Johnson and two others stretching a classmate on a mock torture rack.

That Latin Club photo was courtesy of another classmate. She lives in the Eau Claire area now and said she's appalled by Johnson's politics, but didn't know until I told her that they were high school classmates.

That was common: Not only did classmates not remember him, they didn't know they went to school with a future senator.

Johnson's U.S. Senate spokesman did not respond to an e-mail seeking better leads on his Minnesota roots.

Johnson's junior class picture can be found in the '72 yearbook. Also in that class was one Jane Curler, now Jane Johnson; she and Ron were married in 1977.

"I did reach out to quite a few classmates and no one knew either of them!" Pamela Anderson, who organized the last class reunion, wrote to me in an e-mail. "Kind of crazy."

It does seem a bit unusual that a future politician didn't cut a wider social swath in high school. Think of the iconic picture of teenage Bill Clinton shaking hands with John F. Kennedy.

Most of the alumni I talked to stressed their class was big, at nearly 1,000 students. And it seems littered with success stories: Doctors, lawyers, business executives and entrepreneurs were among those I connected with.

The closest I got to the Johnsons was Paul Olson, a Chaska doctor.

"I knew Jane. I remember Jane," he said. "I don't know if she'd remember me. I don't remember much about her. And I don't … I can't remember Ron."