William Potter Johnson

1935 - 2025

William Potter Johnson
Born: May 4, 1935
Died: May 18, 2025
SAINT SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. – William Potter Johnson, 90, who started a lifelong career in community journalism in Princeton and went on to build a chain of regional newspapers, died Sunday, May 18, 2025, at his home in St. Simons Island.
Bill was born on May 4, 1935, the son of Helen Potter Johnson and William Zweigle Johnson. He grew up in Henry, Ill., then moved to Princeton, Ill., where he graduated from Princeton High School in 1953. He graduated from the University of Michigan with a degree in journalism in 1957. At Michigan, he was a member of Beta Theta Pi fraternity, and led a number of IFC activities such as MichiGras. In later years Bill spearheaded fund drives to help maintain his fraternity, raising more than $1 million to refurbish the house and assist in recruiting new members.
After college, Bill became an officer in the U.S. Navy, serving aboard the minesweeper USS Bittern. He completed his service in 1961 as a full Lieutenant. He returned to Princeton, where he became the general manager of the Bureau County Republican newspaper. He married Pauline ("Pauley") Rowe on May 18, 1968, in Miami.
Bill and Pauley left Princeton in 1970, and later he helped his aunt, Mary Potter Bailey, sell the Bureau County Republican to Shaw Media.
In the ensuing years, Bill became the owner and publisher of a string of weekly, semiweekly, and four-day-a-week newspapers in northern California and the mountains of Colorado. By 1976 he and Pauley had moved to Tucson, Ariz., and were raising their children in Oro Valley. Bill enjoyed long, daily walks around his neighborhood of Oro Valley Country Club, as well as playing tennis and golf. He also enjoyed attending daughter Darragh's tennis matches and son Kelly's baseball games.
Bill was known for nurturing future generations of journalists, and his career was marked by two national events: He encouraged one of his first employees in California to buy the weekly newspaper The Point Reyes Light, which went on to win the Pulitzer Prize's highest award in 1979: The Meritorious Public Service award for investigative journalism for its coverage of the cult Synanon.
Bill's newspaper the Sky-Hi News in Granby, Colorado, became national news when a disgruntled local resident attacked the newspaper and other buildings in town in his fortified bulldozer, an event that was subsequently chronicled in the book "Killdozer" by the paper's editor, Patrick Brower.
Bill sold his empire of newspapers, known as Johnson Media Inc., in 2006 and retired to Vero Beach, Fla. In 2015, he and Pauley bought a home in St. Simons Island and began spending with their son Kelly and his family, eventually moving to St. Simons full-time.
Bill is survived by his wife, Pauley, of St. Simons Island; two children, Darragh Johnson (Chris Hopfensperger) of Alexandria, Va.; William "Kelly" Johnson, M.D. (Mandi) of St. Simons Island; grandchildren Potter, Lexi, Quill, Huxley, Liam and Finn; a brother, Gregg (Sherry) Johnson of Potomac, Md.; a sister Terry (Dennis) Lesch of Louisville, Ky.; and five nieces and nephews.
He was preceded in death by his parents and his aunt.
A burial service for Bill will be held at the Henry Cemetery on Sunday, Nov. 9, at 3 p.m.