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Dr. R. Frank Johnson Receives the
2002 John Wesley Church Relations Award

LAKELAND, Fla. (April 26, 2002) - Dr. R. Frank Johnson, chairman of the Humanities Division at Florida Southern College, was recently named the 2002 winner of the John Wesley Church Relations Award. Named for the founder of Methodism, the award is given annually to a clergy, layperson and/or faculty or staff member who has enthusiastically embraced and worked to strengthen the bond between Florida Southern College and The United Methodist Church.

Dr. Johnson has served for 30 years as a professor in the Department of Religion and Philosophy at Florida Southern. During that time, he has helped to guide hundreds of students into careers in the ministry or other full-time Christian service. In addition, from 1977 until 2000, Dr. Johnson served as dean of the License to Preach School for the Florida Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church. The two-week school of 12-hour days is an intense training for ministry candidates who plan to serve the church through the local pastor program.

Dr. Johnson received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, in 1965; a Master of Divinity from Duke University, Durham, N.C., in 1968; and a Ph.D. in Biblical Studies, Candler School of Theology, Emory University, Atlanta, Ga., in 1973. He is ordained as a United Methodist minister through the North Alabama Conference of the UMC, Birmingham, Ala.

About Florida Southern College
Florida Southern is a four-year, private, co-educational liberal arts college affiliated with the United Methodist Church. The college offers more than 40 undergraduate majors and a master of business administration degree accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. Located in Lakeland, Fla., the college is home to the largest, single-site collection of Frank Lloyd Wright architecture in the world.

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