William Albert Johnson was born on June 14, 1909, in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, to William Radcliffe Johnson and Adda L. (Cunningham) Johnson. Both parents had been schoolteachers; his father became a lawyer while his mother raised the family. Johnson attended elementary school in Stewart Township, Fayette County, Pa., and high school in Connellsville. He entered the University of Southern California, but his money ran out the first semester, he returned home and went to work for Kresge's, the 5-and-10-cent store chain.

Kresge’s sent Johnson to Grand Rapids, where he worked as a stockman and floorwalker. After subsequent transfer to Port Huron and Flint, Johnson returned to Grand Rapids, ready to take any job he could get. For a while he picked apples. Then he turned to WPA, after which he accepted a position at the United States Gypsum Co. In 1938, Johnson competed with 274 other job seekers for a position in the police department. He took the police examination, which was given at Central High School, and he finished among the top ten applicants.

Johnson started with the police force in 1940, working from the central station as a patrolman. He investigated accidents and walked the beats that included Plainfield Avenue, Lake Drive and downtown areas.

At the beginning of World War II, Johnson enlisted in the Marine Corps and was sent to boot camp at Parris Island, South Carolina. After basic training and a short stay in North Carolina, he was shipped overseas to Guadalcanal. He was with the Marines at Okinawa and Saipan. Johnson was discharged in January 1946 as a private first class. The war over, he returned to Grand Rapids and his wife, Helen Sargent, whom he had married in 1931. In a short period of time he was promoted to sergeant, lieutenant and the license officer in City Hall.

He was promoted to captain in charge of the traffic bureau, and in 1954 he was named deputy to Police Chief Dewey Beaver. Shortly after, he accepted an offer to go to Saigon to help train Vietnamese police, after receiving special training in Washington, D.C. While in school, he received a call from City Manager Donald Oakes informing Johnson that the police chief Beaver had died of a heart attack. Johnson received and accepted the offer as superintendent of police. He remained in that position until his retirement in 1969.

At 60, the mandatory retirement age in the police department, Johnson went to Grand Valley State College, to set up the newly created school’s security department. He retired from that position in 1974. After retiring from the police department, Johnson also entered politics. He successfully ran for the Charter Commission. On the Commission he argued forcefully for electing city officials on a partisan ballot and reforming city government to provide for a strong mayor form of administration. In 1976 he ran for city commissioner from the first ward and defeated Richard Schweiger in the runoff election. In 1980 he ran for re-election but was defeated by George Bowman.

For most of his life, Johnson was a volunteer for one agency or another. In February of 1982 he received a plaque in recognition of his long time service on its advisory board. He was a president of the Metropolitan Garden Council, and was a volunteer at Kent County Community Hospital. As a member of Kiwanis and the Breakfast Club, he served as a secretary-treasurer; he also served as treasurer for the Area Agency on Aging which covered a nine-county area. Johnson was one of the founders of Project Rehab and was a member of the Senior Neighbors' board of directors. Finally, he spent most of his Fridays at the Kent County prosecutor's office as one of 12 volunteers who processed cases of victims of criminal actions, a program conducted in conjunction with the state's Crime Victims Compensation Board.