Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Three names stand clear this week in Troy: Mack Gibson and Holman and Ethel Johnson.

All have a strong connection to Troy, to the Johnson Center for the Arts in Troy and to the arts in general.

The late Mack Gibson was a strong promoter and supporter of the JCA and, without a doubt, he was its most dedicated and loyal supporter.

Gibson served as chairman of the board of the cultural arts center for 14 years and was the first board chairman.

Two decades ago, when the idea of a local arts center was being considered, Mack Gibson recognized the value of, and the need for, an arts center and he put his name on the dotted line. Actually, Mack Gibson was the only name on the USDA note to purchase the old Troy Post Office that is now the Holman and Ethel Johnson Center for the Arts and home of the Johnson Center for Arts.

In 2015, Gibson received the Alabama State Council on the Arts Governor’s Arts Award as the board chair of the JCA and for his generosity of time, resources and leadership

Under Gibson’s tenure the JCA, The Studio, The Annex, and an art complex in downtown Troy were all created.

Shelia Jackson, City of Troy Tourism director, said “Mr. Mack” was a lover of life.

“He was a lover of everything,” Jackson said. “He loved the Lord.  He loved his family. He loved people, his community, his country. And, he loved art and music. He loved to laugh; he loved food; he loved Christmas and Easter.  ‘Mister Mack’ ‘was a lover of everything that was good. And, we all loved him and he is missed.”

The Holman and Ethel Johnson Center for the Arts Complex became reality through the dollars and dedication of those who believed that an arts center would bring people together, create a sense of community and provide opportunities for the collaboration of community art.

Manley and Mary Johnson knew and understood the importance of arts in a community and made a contribution to the arts complex in memory and in honor of his parents, Holman and Ethel Johnson, for whom the complex is named.

Holman Johnson (1910- 1990), was the “revered” portrait and cityscape photographer in Troy and the surrounding areas. His book chronicles the people and places in and around Troy and the surrounding area for decades.

Holman Johnson’s book of photography, “Pike County Remembered,”  preserves the way of life as it was in the rural areas of the South but also in the towns and cities. His cityscapes are among the few photographs of their kind.

Not only did he photograph the structures and people of those days and times, he captured the sense of the local community and preserved it for generations.

Holman Johnson captured his world, its people and its places, for those to see and know about in an ever-changing world.

In Johnson’s own words, he wrote in the Forward: This book contains photography of events that I have experienced during my years as a photographer in Troy. I have made and collected many pictures of the vanishing scenes of this area which I have recorded in this book.

(Holman Johnson’s “Pike County Remembered” is available for in-library viewing at the Troy Public Library.)