Born in Medford, Oregon, Harvey H. Johnson grew up in Portland and graduated from the University of Oregon with a degree in Architecture. He established his structural engineering practice in Seattle.

His projects included the Pavilion of Electric Power (shown here) at the Seattle World's Fair of 1962. The open-air pavilion featured a spiral shaped viewing platform overlooking a 40 ft tall shell that simulated a dam. Three thousand gallons of water per minute flowed over the spillway into a large pond at the base, which also featured a 22 ft long map pinpointing dams in Washington state (Source: UW Digital Collections).

An avid outdoorsman, Harvey pioneered light-weight backpacking, creating custom gear that enabled his family to start backpacking in 1962. Beginning in the 1950s, he participated actively in The Mountaineers.

Posted May 2012