George Wesley Johnson, Jr., 86, passed away November 16, 2018. Wes attended Brigham Young University for one year and then continued his education at Harvard where he served on the Harvard Lampoon and worked with a number of influential writers, editors, and thinkers, including John Updike. In his junior year, he deferred his studies for 2½ years to serve a mission in Belgium and France for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. While doing so he became interested in French history and culture. After graduating from Harvard, he completed a PhD in History at Columbia University and advanced studies at the University of Paris-Sorbonne. During his career, Wes was awarded Ford and Rockefeller Foundation grants among many others that impacted his work in West African, Public, Business, Urban, and Latter-day Saint histories. His pivotal work on the French-speaking, West-African country of Senegal made a significant impact on the dialogue of African Americans that he was working with in New York and in France. During his career, Wes wrote many books and articles and founded two successful academic journals that continue to the present, including Dialogue, A Journal of Mormon Thought (along with Eugene England) and The Public Historian: Official Journal of The National Council for Public History (University of California Press). During his career, Wes taught at Stanford University, University of California-Santa Barbara, ASU and Brigham Young University. He retired from BYU in 1997. Wes is survived by his wife, Marian, four children and 17 grand/great-grandchildren. Services in honor of Wes were held at the Edgemont 14th Ward Meeting House, 4220 Foothill Dr., Provo on November 20, 2018.