While President Bill Clinton’s 1968 graduation from Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service is well-known, he is not the only U.S. President to have attended the University. Lyndon Baines Johnson was also briefly a student and left his own mark on Georgetown history.
Johnson was a student in Georgetown’s Law School for less than one semester in fall 1934. He had moved from Texas to D.C. to work for Congressman Richard M. Kleberg in 1932 and enrolled in the Law School with the thought that a law degree could help his political career. Balancing night classes with the demands of his congressional job proved difficult, however. Another “demand” on his time came in the form of Claudia Alta “Lady Bird” Taylor and he left Georgetown around the time they married on November 17, 1934.
Even though his student association with Georgetown was brief, Johnson maintained a relationship with the University. A summary of some of his post-enrollment interactions follows.
- His time as a student made him eligible, in the eyes of University administrators, to receive a John Carroll Award (the highest alumni award that the University bestows) in 1963. He gave the main address at the awards dinner held at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City.
- He received an honorary degree and delivered a significant foreign policy address on the Atlantic Alliance at the closing event of the University’s 175th anniversary celebrations in McDonough Gym, on December 3,1964. This event also saw the inauguration of Gerard J. Campbell, S.J., as Georgetown’s 44th President. The invitation to speak had originally been accepted by President John F. Kennedy who was awarded a posthumous honorary degree at the event.
- On September 13, 1966, President Johnson visited campus and signed an authorization bill for the Peace Corps in the Hall of Nations in the Walsh Memorial Building. This bill provided $110 million for Peace Corps operations. Many of the 97 Peace Corps volunteers being trained at Georgetown at the time attended the signing.
- At least three members of the Georgetown Law faculty served in his administration: Dexter L. Hanley, S.J., was appointed as a U.S. delegate to the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations; Edward Domenic Re became the Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs; and Stanley Metzger was named as Chair of the U.S. Tariff Commission (now known as the U.S. International Trade Commission.)
- His daughter, Luci Baines Johnson, enrolled at Georgetown while he was in the White House. A nursing student, she left after one year to marry–at a time when the Nursing School rules prohibited married students. In 2018, she received an honorary degree from the University.
- Additionally, the University Archives collection includes correspondence between Johnson and University administrators, especially University President Edward B. Bunn, S.J. He even wrote a letter to one of his former Law School professors, Francis E. Lucey, S.J., to mark the 30th anniversary of Fr. Lucey’s teaching career at the School.
- And he wrote letters to GU graduating classes, including one to the Class of 1968 in which he emphasizes that every American’s contribution is needed to preserve and foster freedom due to the complexities of the age.
Although his time as a student was fleeting, Lyndon Baines Johnson's engagement with Georgetown University spanned decades. His story reminds us that even short-lived chapters can sometimes foster enduring relationships.
--Lynn Conway, Georgetown University Archivist