Gunnard Johnston

From the four-room Eliot School deep down in the Heights, next to what is now (for sixty years almost) Route 128/I-95, near Newton Upper Falls, to Stephen Palmer, to Pollard, and on to NHS sophomore year, Needham was my home. In July of 1963 my family moved from Needham up to Concord, NH, where I entered Concord High, and graduated with my class in 1965. Attended Dartmouth, but was not so interested in studies; Vietnam kept me in school, though, and I graduated a 2nd Lieutenant via Army ROTC. After a year of active duty, including jump wings via Ft. Benning, I did a 180 and asked for an early out, which was given after a drawn-out process.
After the service I did a number of different things from coast to coast for five years, and ended up meeting and joining the Unification Church -- Rev. Sun Myung Moon -- in 1975. Since then I've been all over the U.S. (all except the Dakotas and Montana), plus about twenty-five other countries.
I attended Unification Theological Seminary from 1977-79, graduating with a Masters in Religious Education. Worked on college campuses meeting students and faculty from Boston/Cambridge (Harvard) to New York (picketed Alger Hiss at Columbia) to Washington, DC, Geo Washington U., to California, Cal State , L.A.
Then in late 1980 I joined a fishing ministry, going down to St. Augustine, Florida, did shrimp dragging, then on to Miami and Key Vaca (Marathon). Did giant blue-fin tuna fishing out of Gloucester in 1981, and caught two: 879 pounds and 1027 lbs. Then (big) moved to the Washington Times newspaper, and worked out of New York city for two years, where I held conferences for NATO and also UN reps. Went out to do field work back in Boston, then down to Connecticut, Fairfield County.
Returned to NH in 1988 to head up the activities there. Did a summer of seminar programs for Soviet students in 1991 along with 100 other US folk; we had 8,000 students, parents, teachers, professors, and a number of KGB attend. Was in Moscow for the August 1991 putsch which saw Gorbachev held as hostage in the Crimea, but end on a good note, as many of our Soviet summer graduates actively opposed the putsch and called for reform; Soviet Union ended later that year. In 1996 I returned to and lived for 14 years in Lithuania with my family, as we expanded on our earlier foundation from the 1991-93 education projects.
In 2000 I brought a TV journalist from Lithuania to Korea, where we interviewed folks like former VP, Dan Quayle, former British Prime Minister, Edward Heath, and the former president of Zambia, as well as a Catholic arch-bishop, (Lech Walesa, former pres. of Poland was there, but unavailable for interview), at the occasion of Rev. Moon's 80th birthday. ... We are currently living in Seoul, Korea, where I mostly teach English. (Thank you, Miss Burke, where ever you are!!)

Hockey, football, track and field. Syndicate Club. Hanging out with P. Carre, J. Feeley, Gary C., Tom C., K. Tracey, K. Turman, et. al..