Constance Price Johnson

I studied Spanish and teaching English as a Second Language at the U of A. Then after 2 years on the Navajo Reservation, another in rural Ohio and another in northern Virginia, I went to the Dominican Republic to join a friend who'd started an English-language institute. I also wanted to help the Baha'i Faith develop in the Dominican Republic. I met Keith Johnson there and we were married in 1980 and started out own English institute, which is still functioning. We adopted both our children in Santo Domingo.

In 2001 my father died in Tucson, so I came for the funeral. After spending half my life (25 years) in the Dominican Republic, Keith and I saw the doors closing for us there and opening for us in Tucson. That's the short version. We have 3 grandchildren in Tucson and Denver.

Since coming back to Tucson I started a second career as a program evaluator, working for Creative Research and then Amphi Public Schools.

Currently I am a research project manager with TUSD, which sometimes brings me back to --yes, Palo Verde! It was a strange experience at first, as I tried to reconcile old memories with the halls and buildings I was walking through. They both competed in my head for a while as the new images gradually crowded out the old ones. Yes, I found much the same but, well, OLDER. The bricks were sharper then, and the corners cleaner.