SHIRLEY JOHNSON

1940 - 2021

Shirley Z. Johnson The Board of Trustees and staff of the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, the Smithsonian's National Museum of Asian Art, mourn the loss of longtime Trustee and committed Asian art advocate Shirley Zaiss Johnson.

Ms. Johnson was a resident of Washington, DC for nearly 50 years having had a significant local impact through her practice of law and multiple charitable roles in the city.

Ms. Johnson died on July 9, 2021, in Washington, DC, from ovarian cancer. The daughter of Helen and Arthur Zaiss, she was born in Burlington, Iowa, on March 6, 1940.

An honors graduate of the University of Iowa, Ms. Johnson earned a juris doctor degree from the University of Michigan Law School in 1965 with highest honors, Order of Coif. She started as a trial attorney with the United States Department of Justice, Antitrust Division, later serving as antitrust counsel to the United States Senate Judiciary Committee, before entering private practice and becoming partner at Greenberg Traurig and National Chair of the antitrust practice. She authored distinguished legal papers and generously mentored many female colleagues.

After her retirement in 2009, Ms. Johnson passionately pursued her interests in Asian arts and supporting autism, including founding the innovative TRI Project for children in Iowa and serving on the Board of DC Peers, an organization providing social programs and activities for high schoolers and young adults with autism. Ms. Johnson was a recognized art collector and published author on Chinese textiles and Japanese metal art. In Washington, DC, Ms. Johnson served on the Board of The Textile Museum from 1989 to 2003 and on the Board of the Smithsonian's National Museum of Asian Art from 2004 to 2012 and from 2017 until her death. The National Museum of Asian Art is honored to be the primary beneficiary of Ms. Johnson's philanthropy, which embraced many institutions and causes, including the Walters Art Museum and the George Washington University Textile Museum.

Ms. Johnson's extensive gifts to the National Museum of Asian Art include her archives on collecting and a significant collection of Ming- and Qing-dynasty textiles. She also bequeathed nearly sixty outstanding artworks by contemporary Japanese artists who work in metal. A pioneering collector in this field, Ms. Johnson helped establish the global recognition it receives today.

Ms. Johnson's visionary bequest to the National Museum of Asian Art includes $10 million-the largest single gift to the museum since its founding, which will endow the Shirley Z. Johnson Curator of Japanese Art, sponsor visiting Japanese metal artists, and support curatorial and conservation projects.

Ms. Johnson was divorced from Willoughby Johnson in 1968 and in 1979, married attorney Charles Rumph, an internationally recognized photographer whose work is found in museums, including gifts by Ms. Johnson to the Princeton University Art Museum and the National Sporting Library and Museum.

She is survived by her sister, Linda Krantz; her niece, Wendy Conlee; her nephew, Art Krantz; five great-nephews and a great-niece; her three stepchildren: Alison Trembly (Ara), Todd Rumph (Ruth Elowitz), and Stephen Rumph; six grandchildren: Natalia Bost, Susanne Lentini, Davida Lentini, Naomi Rumph, Aaron Rumph and Natasja Schneebeli; and numerous great-grandchildren.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Charles Rumph (died 2019); her parents, Arthur and Helen Zaiss (died 2003 and 2010); and her brother-in-law, Wayne Krantz (died 2020).

The National Museum of Asian Art will remember Ms. Johnson's sharp leadership skills and phenomenal breadth and depth of her contributions to many fields. Her gracious warmth touched many of us personally, and her remarkable wisdom, dedication, scholarship, and generosity leave a legacy that will inspire future generations. Services were private.