ELDON AND JOSEPHINE JOHNSTON FAMILY GRADUATE FELLOWSHIP

When Josephine Keefe was a young girl in Minnesota, little did she know where her life would take her. In the late 1930s she came to visit family in Wyoming, where she met Eldon Johnston, a native Wyomingite. They were married in 1939 and shortly thereafter started a trucking company in Riverton that would become Johnston Fuel Liners, later headquartered in Newcastle. Over the next fifty years, the Johnstons continued to expand their businesses and built ranches near Wheatland and in Arizona. While neither Josephine nor Eldon were able to attend college due to the depression, they felt strongly about the importance of education. All four of their children, and many of their grandchildren, are UW graduates. To honor their joint commitment to education and Wyoming agriculture, Josephine created the Johnston Family Graduate Fellowship in memory of her husband, who died in 1997. Josephine passed away in December 2005.