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William Stanley Johnson
Born	William Stanley Johnson (1941-09-22)22 September 1941 Hell's Gate, Saba
Nationality	Netherlands
Other names	Will Johnson
Occupation(s)	Author, historian, politician

Will Johnson is a Dutch historian, prolific author and veteran politician born on Saba close to an abandoned sulfur mine on the cliffs above the present road toward the airport. He has served on the Island Council; he is well known in the Windward Islands. He was honored by Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands for his years of service to Saba.

Early life

William Stanley Johnson. better known as "Will Johnson" was born on 22 September 1941 in Hell's Gate on the island of Saba, at the time it was part of the Dutch Empire, to David Thomas Johnson and Alma Blanche Simmons. He is the youngest of five siblings including Freddy, Thomas Eric, Samuel Guy and Sadie Beatrix Johnson.

At age thirteen he arrived in Curaçao (via St. Maarten) and spent the next five years in Jongenstad Brakkeput (Boys Town Brakkeput) on the Spanish water lagoon (1955-1960). Twice a year he would pass through St. Maarten to take the schooner Blue Peter which maintained a regular scheduled weekly service to Saba, as there was no airport on that island at the time. He left Brakkeput a few months before he made his nineteen birthday and began working on St. Maarten at the Post Office, so most of his formative years were spent there. The population on St. Maarten was quite small and it was an opportunity to meet nearly everyone on the island in a short time.

He has been married since 1973 to his wife Lynne Ellen Johnson (neé Renz), and has three sons and many grandchildren, including Miss Teen Aruba International, Elizabeth Johnson. His son Christopher Steven Brown (Chris) Johnson, is the head of the Representation of the Netherlands in Sint Maarten; His son Theodore Reuben (Teddy) Johnson is a business man and Notary Public on Aruba, and his son Peter Charles Albert (Peter) Johnson is now completing his Masters in Engineering.

Career

Johnson's name is well known in the Eastern Caribbean and beyond, first and foremost because of his political career. He has served in many functions: Commissioner/Island Council Member for the Dutch Windward Islands and later for Saba as well as Senator and Governor ad interim on Saba for nearly forty years. On 10-10-10 the day the Netherlands Antilles were dissolved he was still a Senator, and he had served exactly FIFTY years in various capacities as civil servant, and as a politician. On that same day the Government of The Netherlands appointed him as one of four Directors of the Civil Servants Pension Fund, a position which he still holds.

He was honored by Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands for his years of service to Saba. He has the rare honor to be the only living politician in the Kingdom of the Netherlands to have have a Tapestry displayed in The Ridderzaal (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈrɪdərzaːl]; English: Hall of Knights) which includes a speech he delivered when he was Chairman of the Island Council in 1999.

Author

His introduction to writing was in 1961 when the late Joseph H. Lake Sr. asked him to contribute a column “News & Views” to the "Windward Islands Opinion" a weekly newspaper founded by the Mr. Lake on July 1st, 1959. Both the “News” and especially “The Views” got him in trouble almost immediately with the political establishment. In 1968, at the request of Union Leader Mr. Alrett Peters, he started a monthly paper “The Labor Spokesman” and at the same time started the “Saba Herald” which he published for twenty-five years.

As a result of these activities, he has written several books: “Tales from My Grandmother’s Pipe: A History of Saba by Sabans” (now in its fifth edition), “For The Love of St. Martin” in its second edition published by McMillan Publishers, and most recently “The Diary of a St. Martin Salt Checker”, and “Caribbean Interlude”. He also wrote “Dreaming Big” a book on the political history of Saba and its place in the Dutch Windward Islands. For the past years he has written a regular column “Under the Sea Grape Tree”, published in the Weekender magazine of The Daily Herald, as well as his own blog “The Saba Islander” and is a co-administrator of the Facebook page “Of Saban Descent”.

Publications

Tales from My Grandmother’s Pipe: A History of Saba by Sabans

Johnson first authored "Saban Lore: Tales from My Grandmother's Pipe" in 1979, which recounts the history of Saba through both the oral and documentary records. He has been proficient in going where no other historian has. He was able to tap into the "Saban Meme" directly from many of the elders of the island, in a series of interviews done for his newspaper "The Saba Herald". Together with Harry L. Johnson and Richard Austin Johnson, and several others, they interviewed, compiled, and put into perspective the History of Saba as told by their own people.

For The Love of St. Martin

The Diary of a St. Martin Salt Checker

Caribbean Interlude

The original manuscript by Kenneth Boles which became the backbone of this book spent 80 years hidden between rafters of a Saban Cottage before it was discovered, edited and published by Will Johnson, The book is a first-person account by an young American journalist who spent one year there during the Great Depression, and met his wife-to-be. Johnson added many original island photographs which makes the book very lively and interesting.

References

Bibliography

• Hornos, Axel; Hornos, Mary (21 August 1960). "Visit to Saba: Guest Book Puts Spotlight on Miss Cornelia Jones". Democrat and Chronicle. Rochester, New York. p. 86. Retrieved 4 November 2017 – via Newspapers.com.
• Johnson, Will (15 August 2009). "Under the Sea Grape Tree: Miss Cornelia Jones First Woman Member of the Island Council" (PDF). The Daily Herald. Philipsburg, St. Maarten. Archived from the original (PDF) on 5 November 2017. Retrieved 4 November 2017.
• Johnson, Will (21 June 2008). "Under the Sea Grape Tree: The Women of Saba" (PDF). The Daily Herald. Philipsburg, St. Maarten. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 November 2017. Retrieved 4 November 2017.

Category:1941 births Category:Members of the Saba Island Council