The Texas A&M System Board of Regents recently authorizedTarleton State University to name the Science Building after the former professor of biological sciences and dean of the College of Arts & Sciences Dr. Lamar Johanson.

Johanson dedicated 40 years of teaching to Tarleton and recently donated five million dollars worth of estate to the University.

“[Tarleton] has impacted my total life. My whole professional career was around Tarleton,” Johanson said. “I was fortunate enough to become an instructor at Tarleton in 1961 as Tarleton transitioned from a junior college to a senior college status and for the next 40 years just about everything that happened on the Tarleton campus I was a part of. It provided me an excellent opportunity to teach and work with students and that’s what I really wanted to do.”

In 1961, Johanson and his wife, Marilynn Timberlake, moved toStephenville. Lamar worked at Tarleton as an instructor in the Department of Biological Sciences while Marilynn taught at HicoHigh School.

Two years later in 1963, Johanson attended Texas A&M University to obtain his doctorate in plant physiology and biochemistry.

During his time at Tarleton, Johanson served as the first executive director of Tarleton Central Texas, now Texas A&M-Central Texas.

“I had a very rewarding career at Tarleton. My wife was never an employee at Tarleton but very much involved atTarleton,” Johanson said. “We went there as young folks and we grew up as Tarleton grew into the university that it is today. It’s very important to us and we were fortunate enough to be in a position to leave a legacy to the university and both of us being educators knew of no better way to leave a legacy than to invest in student minds and invest in scholarships.”

Last year, the Johansons donated a life estate gift estimated in excess of five million dollars to Tarleton. The gift includes nearly 1,700 acres of farm and ranch land, with mineral rights, in San Saba and Mills counties. They have also committed to leave the remainder of their estates to Tarleton, currently valued in excess of 1.5 million.

“Dr. Johanson has been and continues to be instrumental in the development of the science programs at Tarleton,” Dean of college of science and technology Dr. James Pierce said. “He was a long serving Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and was a leader in the development of the plans for the Science building.  In addition, he and his wife Marilyn have donated a substantial estate gift to Tarleton.”

The science building was built in 1999 and has not officially been named until now. A formal ceremony will be held to dedicate the facility with the official name of the Lamar Johanson Science Building.

When asked what his reaction was after being informed about the honor, Johanson said, “I was in total shock, but greatly, greatly appreciative.”

“I had a 40 year career at Tarleton that was very, very satisfying, and I would say this is just a capstone of a very satisfying and rewarding career,” Johanson said.