Dr. Thomas Johnson was born to and brought up by Swedish parents. His mother came from just outside of Göteborg. His father was from southern Västergötland. He travelled to Sweden where he learned Swedish as well as at home and church.He majored in music and Swedish at North Park University in Chicago. He also attended Södra Vätterbygdens Folkhögskola in Jönköping in Småland. He completed his Master's Degree in Germanic Linguistics and Swedish Literature at the University of Washington. He studied at Uppsala University in 1985.In 1986, he began his doctoral degree at the University of California at Berkeley. In 1992 he was a visiting fellow at the Nordic Museum in Stockholm, where he performed research to eventually complete his dissertation in the Spring of 2010 at the University of Washington. He taught Swedish, as well as Swedish folklore, sagas, Old Norse religion and mythology at the University of Washington. He also taught Swedish at the Scandinavian Language Institute at the Nordic Heritage Museum in Seattle.He is survived by his spouse Willow Moon (Michael Tarplee).