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“J” is for Johnson, William Woodward (1931-2017)

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“J” is for Johnson, William Woodward (1931-2017). Banker. A native of North Augusta, Johnson grew up in Greenwood. After graduation from USC (where he played football), he went to work at his father’s bank, the Bank of Greenwood. When his father died in 1961, Johnson and his brother took over the bank. In 1969 the bank was renamed Bankers Trust and moved into the twenty-story Bankers Trust Tower, then Columbia’s tallest building. Bankers Trust merged with North Carolina National Bank in 1986 and the institution eventually became part of Nations Bank and then Bank of America. Johnson rose to chairman of the executive committee of Bank of America and was a director of the corporation. In 1998 William Woodward Johnson became chairman of the Augusta National Golf Club, which hosts the Masters golf tournament.

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Dr. Walter Edgar has two programs on South Carolina Public Radio: Walter Edgar's Journal, and South Carolina from A to Z. Dr. Edgar received his B.A. degree from Davidson College in 1965 and his Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina in 1969. After two years in the army (including a tour of duty in Vietnam), he returned to USC as a post-doctoral fellow of the National Archives, assigned to the Papers of Henry Laurens.