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Claudius Osborne Johnson was born in Greenville, Virginia, January 6, l894. He attended the University of Richmond from 1913 to 1917, receiving an A.B. in 1917. His education was interrupted by service overseas with the United States Army in World War I, where he attained the rank of first sergeant of infantry. Upon his return he took his masters degree from the University of Chicago, 1920-1921, and received his doctorate from that institution in l927. Johnson taught at the University of North Dakota from 1921 through 1926 and at the University of Chattanooga from 1926 through 1928. He came to WSU in 1928 as the first full-time political science professor and chairman of the newly formed Department of History and Political Science. At WSU he met Mary Wilson Maxwell, whom he married in 1929. He served as chair of the department until 1951 and retired from the faculty in 1960. He had been described as "one of the most stimulating people who ever entered a classroom at WSU." (Obituary, Idahonian, February 28, 1976.)

In addition to his teaching career at WSU, Johnson was professionally active in several capacities. Governor Clarence D. Martin appointed him to the state Constitutional Revision Committee, 1935-1936. He received a governor's certificate for contributions to the cultural life of the State of Washington in 1967. Johnson served as the Vice-President of the American Political Science Association in 1958. He was honored by his faculty colleagues in being asked to deliver one of the first Invited Addresses at WSU. He traveled widely and was a Fulbright lecturer at the universities of Sydney and Melbourne in Australia in 1953-1954 as well as visiting professor at the universities of Minnesota, Illinois, Colorado and California at Berkeley. He was a Fulbright visiting professor at the University of Athens in 1961-1962.

Johnson authored many books and scholarly articles. His textbooks have been used nationwide. Government in the United States, American National Government, and American State and Local Government all have appeared in several editions. He wrote several monographs, Carter Henry Harrison I: Political Leader (published by the University of Chicago Press, 1928) and Borah of Idaho (published by Longmans, Green & Co., 1936, and reissued by the University of Washington Press, 1967) and scores of articles for scholarly publications.

Dr. Johnson was a frequent speaker on political and international themes and was a delegate to the peace conference at Geneva, Switzerland, in 1926 as a guest of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He was a member of Phi Beta Kappa and a number of other professional and honorary groups. He received an honorary Doctor of Letters degree from the University of Richmond in 1961. He belonged to Lambda Chi Alpha social fraternity.

Although he retired in 1960, Johnson remained active. He continued to teach on visiting professor appointments and to publish. In 1967, WSU's eight-story Claudius O. Johnson Tower, where the political science department is now located, was dedicated in his honor. Dr. Johnson died in February, 1976.