Eileen Johnson

Awarded for service to Education and Training

Born: 27 August 1923

Died: 6 July 2009

Entered on roll: 2011

Eileen Johnson was born in Launceston in 1923.

Eileen learned music from Joyce Ball and regularly took part in competitions and Eisteddfods, winning many awards and prizes. Eileen later moved to Hobart and studied with Anne McGarry OAM as a student and as a colleague teacher.

Eileen enrolled by correspondence at the University of Melbourne to continue her studies in music theory. Throughout her life she continued to enhance her professional learning and her musical knowledge in all its form was extraordinary. Eileen was acknowledged by the Australian Music Examination Board as one of its senior examiners with particular expertise in theory.

Eileen was a Life Member of the Tasmanian Music Teachers’ Association, the Hobart Eisteddfod Society, and the City of Clarence Eisteddfod. These honours, bestowed by her peers, acknowledge her work as a committee member who gave countless hours of voluntary service to these organisations to promote musical excellence. 

Eileen’s great talent as a teacher meant that her students excelled and were prominent winners at Eisteddfods. She found great pleasure in assisting her students in any way possible. She voluntarily provided thousands of hours of free tuition and on many occasions paid for entry fees to competitions, and provided music books and other requirements for her students.

Eileen taught at The Friends’ School for over 25 years. She was also asked to provide specialist teaching for scholarship piano and music theory students at Ogilvie High School and the Hobart College. When ‘almost’ considering retirement, Eileen was persuaded to teach at St Michael’s Collegiate School where she actually ended up spending a further 25 years teaching piano.

Eileen was an inspirational and devoted teacher in a career that spanned 70 years. She officially retired on her 85th birthday but continued to work with her much loved students up until the week of her death in 2009.