Lorin Keith Johnson was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, on April 14, 1923. His family moved to Idaho Falls, Idaho, in 1925 and then to Provo, Utah, in 1929, where Lorin spent the rest of his childhood. Born one of four boys to the prominent businessman Heber C. Johnson and his wife Ella, Lorin was particularly drawn to the performing arts and regularly participated in drama, theater, and dance. Although not much is known about his life before the war, it is reported that he attended the University of Utah, Brigham Young University, the Los Angeles Art Center, Kenyon College in Ohio, Alliance Française and the École nationale supérieure in Paris. He spoke four languages.

Johnson enlisted in the US Army Reserve in December 1942 and served in France in a Signal Service battalion attached to headquarters of the Supreme Headquarters of the American Expeditionary Forces (SHAEF) in 1944 before receiving a transfer to the MFAA in early August 1945. As a clerk-typist, Johnson typed reports and managed files for the Monuments Men in Germany at the MFAA Branch of the US Group Control Council (USGCC), first at its office headquarters in Höchst and later Berlin. In February 1946, he chose to civilianize to continue his duties at the MFAA Section of the Office of Military Government, US. He returned to Utah in September 1946, and was awarded with two battle stars.

Of his three brothers, two also served in the US Armed Forces. Dr. Rulon Johnson served in the Dental Corps and was stationed at Fort DuPont, Delaware, and his elder brother Bob served in England. Sadly, First Lieutenant Bob W. Johnson was killed in the Normandy invasion on June 30, 1944, and was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart. This was not the only loss for Lorin while he was stationed abroad; his first wife died while he was away in 1942.

After having returned to the United States in 1946, Lorin joined the University of Louisville in Kentucky as a vocational counselor and assisted the architect-in-residence in the planning and transformation of the campus. In 1951, he moved west, working in several retail men’s stores before buying a store in 1957 in Sausalito with his business partner Michael Gray, forming Johnson & Gray. In 1974, he formed a partnership with James Perry and opened a store in San Francisco. He then sold it in 1978 and retired to San Diego. He created gardens of exotic plants.

Lorin Johnson died in San Diego, California on May 4, 1987 at the age of 64, following a short struggle with Hodgkin’s disease.