Growing up in San Diego in the 1950s, Franklin Johnson was a tennis phenomenon. He held a national junior ranking and won the city’s Ink Tennis Championship four consecutive years while attending St. Augustine High School.
By 1954, he and his Saints teammates were among Southern California’s best high school tennis teams. In 1956, Johnson led his UCLA Bruin teammates to the NCAA national team title.
After graduate studies, he embarked on an executive accounting career in Los Angeles. For 22 years at Price Waterhouse, Johnson led a special unit that collected and kept secret the Oscar ballots cast for the Academy Awards.
He also stayed active in tennis, serving on the USTA Board for 11 years. He is credited with helping place Billie Jean King’s name on the national tennis center. He served as USTA Secretary Treasurer, then First Vice President and finally Chairman of the Board and USTA President (2005-06).
The current USTA President Brian Hainline said he didn’t believe Franklin missed a match on the Arthur Ashe Stadium court during this year’s 2023 U.S. Open: “He watched; he analyzed; he expressed wonder; he smiled. Franklin came home following an exceptional US Open – an event, landscape, an experience that he helped to shape forever.” (quote borrowed from USTA Southern California website)
In September, just days after the tournament ended, Franklin Johnson returned home to Los Angeles, where he passed away.
He was a tennis hero, a teammate, and a friend.
—John Martin