Betty
The Betty Wold Johnson Foundation operates as the legacy of Betty Wold Johnson (1921-2020), matriarch of the Johnson family and a renowned philanthropist. Established in 2021, the Betty Wold Johnson Foundation has assets of approximately $1 billion. It is governed by Betty’s sons, Ambassador Robert Wood Johnson, who previously served as the United States Ambassador to Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and Christopher Johnson, the Vice Chairman of the New York Jets.
Betty, as she liked to be called, was born in Saint Paul, Minnesota. She was the eldest of four children. Her parents, Maybelle Lundgren Wold and Dr. Karl Christian Wold, taught Betty and her siblings love of God, family, country and the value of hard work. After graduating high school and following the attack on Pearl Harbor during World War II, Betty enlisted in the United States Navy WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service). Stationed at naval air stations in Texas and Rhode Island, she helped train young fighter pilots using flight simulators. During the war she met and married Robert Wood Johnson III, son of General Robert Wood Johnson II and grandson of Robert Wood Johnson, founder of the Johnson & Johnson Company. Together, they had five children and were married until his death in 1970 at age 50.
Mrs. Johnson was a curious, intelligent woman, celebrated as one of her generation's greatest philanthropists. Philanthropy was both her profession and her calling, and as one project concluded, another soon began. Her giving focused primarily on the New York and New Jersey area, where she and her family lived, and touched an extraordinary range of causes. In health care, she supported RWJ University Hospital and Princeton Medical Center. In the arts, her generosity benefited Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, The Metropolitan Opera, the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, and the Princeton Symphony Orchestra. In education, she supported Liberty Science Center and Morven Museum and Garden (Historic Morven). And in land preservation and the environment, she was a devoted supporter of the Nature Conservancy of New Jersey and the D&R Greenway Land Trust.
In 2008, she donated $11 million to the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, the single largest individual gift in the Newark Arts Center's history. Betty was drawn to the arts because of its power to, as she put it, "feed the spirit." The daughter of a physician and steward of the Johnson family legacy, she understood the necessity for strong public healthcare. Therefore, she gave to many health organizations, notably the rebuilding of Princeton Hospital. Her support for Project Renewal, an organization focused on aid to New York’s homeless population, provided mobile health services to those in need.
She encouraged organizations to build endowments to ensure their missions could continue for generations. And unlike so many others, Betty preferred her philanthropy to be anonymous. She focused her support on indirect costs and operational needs, funding critical to an institution’s success but too often overlooked by other philanthropists. Betty was not a donor who wanted her name out in front. Nevertheless, one organization insisted her generosity be recognized alongside her humility. And so, down in the basement, where few would visit but those who work to keep the building running, is a small plaque that reads "Betty's Boiler Room".
Betty turned 99 on January 31, 2020. She was said to have had one wish. "I better live a long time because there's so much to do”. She died peacefully on May 5th of that same year, leaving the Foundation that she created to carry on all the work she had left to do.