Katherine Rhodes Johnston, 1938
B.A., Denison University
Memphis, Tenn.
Citation awarded 1956
Katherine Rhodes Johnston is an eminent representative of the best traditions in American business and a passionate supporter of her alma mater.
Mrs. Johnston serves as president and sole director of an extensive business enterprise comprising Rhodes-Jennings, three other Memphis furniture companies, several furniture companies in other cities of the South, and prodigious financial interests in real estate and investments. Mrs. Johnson combines her unusual executive qualities with those who seek to apply Christian principles to the everyday activities of life. Though she has doubled and tripled her enterprises, she devotes equal energy and substance to civic and philanthropic interests. Hers is a life early distinguished and exemplary of Denison ideals by her unusual success as a young business woman, her profound civic beneficence, her devotion as a wife and mother, and her thoughtfulness and liberality in support of Denison.
