Logan T. Johnston III – 50th Reunion Essay

Logan T. Johnston III

7617 N. 11th Street

Phoenix, AZ 85020

ltjohnston@live.com

Spouse(s): Paula Parker (1972–1995); Celeste Linguere (1997)

Child(ren): Charlotte (1974), Logan (1976), Owen (1978), Oritse (1979), Gboyega (1981)

Grandchild(ren): Maddux, Sawyer, Emery, and Palmer (2006–2013)

Education: Yale, B.A. 1969; Harvard Law School, JD 1973

National Service: Army National Guard 1970–76

Career: Litigator and equity member, Winston & Strawn 1973–89; Managing Member, Johnston Maynard Grant & Parker 1989–1997; Johnston Law Offices since.

I came to Yale as a sheltered, homesick, and naïve introvert. My family assumed I’d become someone important; if I did, I wasn’t so sure it would be according to their metrics. I roomed with my great pal Dave Brezina (deceased) and enjoyed the Trumbull squash courts, the golf course, football games in the fall, and the big chairs at the Harkness Library. But I really didn’t make it out of my shell until I got to law school (Harvard) and discovered booze, grass, and psychedelics. I joined the National Guard to avoid a war I did not understand. I married Polly Parker, a hometown beauty, in 1972.

After law school, we returned to Chicago, where I joined Winston & Strawn. Again, it took me a while to understand what I was doing (civil litigation) and longer to become comfortable doing it. With three great kids, we moved to Winston’s Phoenix office in 1983, in an effort to escape dysfunctional interfamily dynamics. When Winston & Strawn left Phoenix in 1989, most of the lawyers and I used my Winston equity to form a midsize firm under my name. That firm blew up after several successful years, and I’ve practiced as a sole practitioner since, primarily serving as outside counsel to Arizona’s Medicaid agency.

I went through a nasty divorce that ended in 1995. In 1997, I remarried the remarkable Celeste Linguere. My two sons have refused to speak to me ever since, though I have an excellent relationship with my daughter. Celeste is African-American, so I’ve learned more from her and my two stepsons than I might have otherwise about intolerance. At 60, she went back to school and got a PhD. in psychology as an adjunct to her gift for physiognomics.

I nearly crashed and burned in 2010, but I’ve been sober now for eight years—a miracle for which I am daily grateful. To give something back, I’m an elder in a local Presbyterian church and I’ve assisted for years at a nearby rehab center. I’ve been blessed with excellent health, and I swim regularly for exercise. I admired JFK and loved RFK. I recently read David Halberstam’s Unfinished Odyssey of Robert Kennedy and cried again at the memory of the blasted hope his death represented for many of us. I have great respect for Obama and I loathe the lout we have now, who may be debasing culture and civility in ways that will take a long time to repair.

I have a few good friends. I still love to read. I’m pretty mainstream in my tastes: a die-hard fan of Brando, Sinatra, Gershwin, Cormac McCarthy, From Here to Eternity, Tiger Woods, Neil Young, Rosanne Cash and Phil Collins. I’ve read the Course in Miracles a couple of time, and sometimes I wonder if I should have been a Taoist monk. But life is good and, seen as a glass half-full, it continues to improve. I look forward with curiosity to what comes next.