As a security officer working the front desk at Huntsman Hall’s Walnut Street entrance, Officer Charles Johnson is often the first person Wharton students, faculty and staff see when they arrive on campus.
And Johnson makes sure to greet each and every person who walks through that door as warmly–and as humorously–as he possibly can.
His trademark “Goooood morning!” greeting, his cajoling and singing, his personalized bobblehead figure and his handmade welcome signs have been staples of the Wharton experience for years now.
“I come to work to have fun,” Johnson says. “I do a job, I do a job properly, and I like to make sure everyone else who comes in gets started out on a good foot.”
It’s safe to say that Officer Johnson has become something of an institution here at Penn.
But how well do you really know him?
We here at Wharton Magazine recently sat down for an interview with Officer Johnson, and by the time we were done–we chatted for a good 45 minutes; not surprisingly, he’s quite the conversationalist–we had not only learned why he goes out of his way to be so darn cheerful all the time, but also discovered a thing or two about his, well, interesting musical past.
