Funeral Services Held for Johnson, College Figure for Over 40 Years

Funeral services were held Wednesday for Arthur A. Johnson, known to generations of Harvard men as "Snowball." After almost 40 years as a figure in College undergraduate life; he died last week at the age of 61.

Since first coming to Cambridge in 1914, Johnson served as bartender, valet, and jack-of-all-trades through the era of the original "Gold Coast," the thirsty days of Prohibition, and two world wars. Besides being the official bartender at many student parties and dances, including all those of the CRIMSON, he was for many years caretaker at the home of Charles Townsend Copeland '82, Boylston Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory, Emeritus.

Johnson, the youngest of 11 children, was born in Rockville, Maryland, in 1890. He became a pullman porter on the New York Central's Twentieth Century Limited at the age of 19. After five years, he came to Harvard when social life centered in the expensive parties and polite society of the Claverly and Adams Houses. Except for a brief period of service in World War One, he stayed in Cambridge ever since.

During the Prohibition era, Johnson was well known at student parties because of his ability to get the best of bootlegged liquor from Canada by way of his old associates on the Pullman trains.

A promoter of many varied enterprises, he managed several semi-pro baseball teams, including the "Boston Tigers," champions of their league many times since 1922. He is survived by a sister, a niece, and other relatives.