Student’s Perseverance and Pluck Garner Prestigious Award

By this time, you would think it would be tough to rattle Lawrence Johnson.

He has loaded bombs aboard aircraft carriers, built missiles at Point Mugu, kept pace with a 3-year-old granddaughter and recently graduated with honors from college, despite a 1989 motorcycle crash that left him paralyzed from the waist down and using a wheelchair.

But even after all he has been through, and all he has accomplished, the 44-year-old Ventura resident was left tongue-tied this week by news that he had won the 2000 Hearst/CSU Trustees’ Award for Outstanding Achievement.

Johnson, who graduated in May from the Ventura County campus of Cal State Northridge, is among five students from the 23-campus state college system to receive the award, one of the most prestigious given by the CSU governing board.

“I’m speechless,” said Johnson, who will receive the award and a $3,000 check from Cal State trustees at their board meeting Wednesday in Long Beach.

“That is definitely an accomplishment--we’re talking about thousands of applicants,” he said. “I hope I’m helping show that disabled people are just as capable as anyone else of succeeding and excelling academically.”

As president of the Associated Students at CSUN’s satellite campus, Johnson has been doing exactly that, friends and supporters say.

Popular, friendly and fast on four wheels, he worked last year to increase the budget from $5,000 to $54,000 for the student body at the off-campus center, in operation near Camarillo at what is planned as the future home of Cal State Channel Islands.

About $30,000 went to establish and operate an innovative voucher program to help students--many of whom are working parents--pay for child care.

“Don’t let the wheelchair fool you,” said Santa Paula resident Ed Pulido, a CSUN student who serves as a senator for the Associated Students.

“I think this award speaks to the caliber of Larry’s leadership and how much he embodies the attributes the award represents,” he added. “It certainly is why he is the best person to represent the student body here. He just has such drive--once he wants something done he doesn’t stop until it is completed.”

That hasn’t always been the case.

A native of Ohio, Johnson joined the Navy right out of high school and served two tours. He ended his military career in 1981 at the Point Mugu Naval Air Station, where he became a civilian employee involved in missile testing operations.

That lasted until 1989, when Johnson took his motorcycle out for a spin, slid on some gravel and crashed a short distance from his home. He was paralyzed. But just as bad, he sank into a deep depression that cost him his marriage and took nearly four years to shake.

“It was pretty much the ‘poor-me syndrome,’ ” he said. “It took me until 1993 to snap out of it. It wasn’t a gradual thing. One day I just said I’ve got to do something with my life. I decided I might as well go to college. Let’s face it, as a paraplegic I had to be able to use my brain.”

With the help of the state Department of Rehabilitation, he enrolled first at Ventura College then at CSUN’s local campus, where around graduation time he collected a string of honors and awards, including recognition from the main Northridge campus as one of the university’s outstanding seniors.

Johnson, who received his bachelor’s degree in psychology, is now enrolled in CSUN’s master’s program, on track to become a college guidance counselor in a couple of years.

“He’s a special person,” said Steve Lefevre, director of CSUN’s off-campus center.

“He’s a good advocate for students with disabilities and good at reminding us that our new campus out here has got to be friendly for students who have physical disabilities,” Lefevre added. “But in or out of a wheelchair, I think he’d be a person who would be recognized in this way.”

As far as Johnson is concerned, that’s the highest compliment that can be paid. He doesn’t want awards just because he’s disabled and happens to be a student leader.

He wants to be considered a good student and an effective leader--who just happens to use a wheelchair to get around.

“By taking on the role of president, by succeeding academically, I hope that I’m helping dispel the myth that disabled people cannot compete or hold down certain types of jobs,” Johnson said. “I know it’s tough. It’s tough for me. But I’m willing to do the best I can.”