Charles B. Johnson

Charles Bartlett Johnson was born in 1933 in Montclair, New Jersey, to Rupert Harris Johnson and Florence Endler. His father and mother divorced during his childhood, leaving Charles to live with his mother and four siblings.[3] His father's second marriage produced Rupert Jr., Charles' later business partner, and two other half-siblings.

Johnson attended Montclair High School, and then Yale College, where he graduated in 1954. At Yale he played offensive guard for the football team and waited dining hall tables as a scholarship student.[3][4] An ROTC cadet, he later served as a lieutenant in the United States Army stationed in Germany.[3]

Johnson and his brother, Rupert Johnson, Jr., worked at Franklin Resources, a mutual fund company started by Rupert Sr. in 1947. In 1957, at the age of 24, he became CEO[5] and is credited for taking the company public in 1971. He was succeeded by his son Greg Johnson in 2013.[6]

Johnson is principal owner of the MLB San Francisco Giants, although he leaves team control duties to the head of the ownership group, Larry Baer. Other members of the group include Scott Seligman, Peter Magowan, Philip Halperin, Allan Byer, and David S. Wolff.[7]

Johnson is one of his alma mater's largest benefactors, having given considerable sums to athletic and student facilities at Yale. Johnson Field, used for field hockey, was opened in 2001.[8] In 2005, he was the principal donor to a renovation of the Yale Bowl.[8] Johnson has also funded academic programs, including the Johnson Center for the Study of American Diplomacy and Brady–Johnson Program in Grand Strategy.[9]

In September 2013, Yale president Peter Salovey announced that Johnson had given $250 million to support the construction of two new residential colleges costing $400 million. The gift was the largest in Yale's history in nominal terms.[10] One of the new colleges has been named for Benjamin Franklin, a personal hero of Johnson's whose name is borne by the family investment firm. This decision was met with confusion by some Yale students, as Benjamin Franklin, who received an honorary degree from the university, owned slaves before joining the abolition movement.[11]

Johnson is one of the largest donors to Republican and Tea-Party-backed political campaigns.[12] Since 2000, he has contributed over $900,000 to the campaigns of Mitt Romney, John Boehner, and Ben Quayle. In 2015, Johnson donated $1 million to a Super PAC supporting the presidential candidacy of Jeb Bush.[13]

In 2018, Johnson and his wife, Ann, each donated $2,700 to the campaign of Cindy Hyde-Smith who is a Republican U.S. Senator from Mississippi in a runoff election against Mike Espy, an African-American democratic candidate. On the campaign trail, Hyde-Smith was criticized when a video surfaced showing her tell a local rancher, “If he invited me to a public hanging, I’d be on the front row.” The basis for such wide criticism came as the state has dealt with a history of African Americans being lynched. Nine days after such controversial video surfaced, Charles Johnson and his wife Ann Johnson each donated $5,400 to the Hyde-Smith campaign which sparked further criticism of Mr. and Mrs. Johnson.[14]

Later in the same year [2018], Johnson donated $1000 to Black Americans for the President's Agenda, a super PAC that supports President Trump's policies and conservative candidates, according to the group's financial disclosures. The superPAC released a racist ad, which forced Johnson to release a statement saying "I had absolutely no knowledge that this donation would be used in this manner and I, like the Giants organization, strongly condemn any form of racism and in no way condone the advertisement that was created by this entity."[5][15][16]

Johnson also donated to the campaign of Lauren Boebert which sparked controversy after Boebert appeared to be aiding rioters in the United States Capitol on January 6th, 2021 who sought to assassinate House Speaker and San Francisco Representative Nancy Pelosi. Johnson has still not asked for a return of this donation despite having done so in the past from other politicians. [17]

Charles is married to Ann, and they have six children (a seventh is deceased).[1] His son, Greg Johnson, is chairman and CEO at Franklin Resources.[1] Ann became a medical doctor after raising their children, and supervised the restoration of the Carolands Chateau.

• Franklin Templeton Investments