Prof. Walter Rogers Johnson was born on June 12, 1794, in Leominster, Worcester, Massachusetts.

He was an educator, educational reformer, scientist, and author. He graduated from Harvard College in 1819 and started to teach first at Framingham Academy and later at Salem Academy, Mass. He served as principal of the Germantown Academy, Penn. In 1826, he moved to Philadelphia and taught at Franklin Institute. In 1839, he became Professor of Chemistry and Natural Philosophy at Pennsylvania College at Gettysburg. He was deeply interested in the cause of public education. He became the first Secretary of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1848. He also did research on coal for the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D. C., and published numerous books related to his research.

In 1824, he married Nancy Maria Donaldson (1794–1890), a missionary and inventor of a hand-cranked ice cream freezer. He died on April 26, 1852, in Washington, D.C.