Written by Karl Johnson

Karl Johnson

Founder

Karl Johnson received his bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees from Cornell University. Karl previously served as the Dan Tillemans Director of the Cornell Team and Leadership Center, a division of Cornell Outdoor Education. Karl was recognized as a 1999 Academy of Leisure Sciences Future Scholar and has received several writing awards, including the 2014 Literary Award of the Christian Society of Kinesiology and Leisure Studies. His interests include human relations with the natural landscape, from wilderness to urban environs. Karl currently serves as Chief Strategist for The Octet Collaborative, the center for Christian study at MIT.  Beginning in January 2021, he will serve as the Director of the Consortium for Christian Study Centers.

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June 24, 2014

Dear Friends of Chesterton House,

Exactly two years ago, we announced our first ever capital campaign with a goal of raising $1,350,000 in gifts and pledges by January 2014, including $1,000,000 for a residential facility and $300,000 for the courses initiative. At seven times annual contributions revenue, this was a very ambitious goal.

As we reported last winter, Chesterton House received a most generous pledge of $1,000,000 from Susan ’81 and Greg Gianforte for the purchase of a house. After a very long six months of negotiation with the owner of the residential facility we have been renting for four years, it is our great privilege and pleasure to report that Chesterton House is now the proud owner of a large Tudor mansion located at 115 The Knoll, Ithaca, NY!

We are very grateful to the Gianfortes for their visionary gift to support Christian living and learning at Cornell, and we invite all of you to join with us in giving thanks to God for this great provision, which will benefit students at Cornell for generations to come.  

It is a great privilege to serve the Cornell community in this way, and we appreciate the support of all those who have helped us get to this milestone over the last 14 years. We invite you to join with us in celebrating God’s goodness and provision, for with the purchase of this house, we now have the assurance that the residential ministry is here to stay. Thanks be to God!

Karl E. Johnson
Executive Director

Chesterton House Painting