Walter Johnson published Excelsior, Wayzata papers

Walter Johnson, a former city newspaper reporter, took the plunge to live his dream, moving on to own, edit and report for his own newspaper.

Johnson, who was publisher of the former Maverick of Excelsior and the former Wayzata Weekly News, died of cancer on Aug. 9 at his Minnetonka home. He was 88.

After covering the news for the Daily Telegram in Superior, Wis.; the Duluth News Tribune; the Omaha World Herald; the old New York Herald Tribune and the old Minneapolis Star, he began his publishing career with the Excelsior newspaper, later adding the Wayzata newspaper.

"He was a one-man tornado," said Lance Olson, former editor of the former Lake Minnetonka Sun in Wayzata. "He was everywhere. He got the ads; he wrote the stories."

Olson often saw his competitor knocking on doors, whether selling or reporting. "I was always impressed by him. He kind of got under your skin. I'd read his paper, and say, 'Oh no, Walter had a story I didn't have.'"

Johnson joined the Minneapolis Star in the mid-1940s. He was a reporter for 11 years and an editorial page writer for 13.

As a reporter at the Star, he was known for his coverage of welfare and social problems.

He even covered a bit of the Korean War, which broke out shortly after he arrived in the Far East.

In 1969, he gave that all up to become a watchdog in the western suburbs, diligently covering city government and school boards.

A student of history and art, he welcomed a Russian transplant, who fled the former Soviet Union, to teach ballet in Hopkins.

During the Lake Minnetonka Chilly Open, he covered the winter festival, featuring such sports as ice bowling, golf, and figure skating, said his daughter, Judy Johnson Bouts of Minnetonka.

And he relished the prospect of restoring the steamboat Minnehaha. "He got to live his dream," said his wife, Penny.

His daughter, Nancy Johnson-Highfill of Newcastle, Wyo., worked for him when she was a teenager, and got a whole new perspective on her father. "I was pretty impressed with his ability to handle deadline pressure," she said.

Johnson, a North Dakota native, who graduated from Fargo High School, received his bachelor's degree from the University of Missouri's School of Journalism in 1941.

In the 1950s, he acted in the play "The Front Page" at the Old Log Theater. In the 1960s, and 1970s, he was a leader of the Minneapolis figure skating club, which performed around Minnesota. And after selling the newspapers in the mid-1980s, he painted and wrote poetry and a couple of unpublished historical novels.

In addition to his wife of 65 years, and his two daughters, he is survived by a son, Walter of Minnetonka, and nine grandchildren.