Long-Time Leaders Retire at Bethany House

By Lynn Garrett -- Publishers Weekly, 2/27/2008 6:47:00 AM

It’s official: completing the transition that was announced last year, Gary Johnson, president, and Carol Johnson, v-p/editorial for fiction, are retiring from their long-time leadership roles at the Bloomington, Minn.-based Christian house, Bethany House Publishers, effective Feb. 29. The couple has served the house since the 1960s.

Bethany House was founded in 1956 at Bethany College of Missions as a campus bookstore/publishing operation. Gary Johnson became manager of the store in 1960, a job that included oversight of the press and its six-title backlist. Once on board, he began acquiring Christian self-help and “deeper-life” books, many of which became classics, including Kingdom of the Cults and The Christian Family.

Carol Johnson began editing at Bethany House in the mid-1960s, and became full-time editorial director in 1979. Bethany House launched the career of Janette Oke with her Love Comes Softly series of Christian romance novels, still one of the bestselling Christian fiction series of all time. Carol Johnson is widely acknowledged as one of the seminal figures in the development of Christian genre fiction, a category in which Bethany House continues to play a leading role. She also helped create the Christy Awards for Christian fiction.

Bethany House was acquired by Grand Rapids, Mich.-based Baker Publishing Group in 2003, but its editorial offices remain in Bloomington. On March 1, Jim Parrish will take over as executive v-p and director of Bethany House Publishers. He has been with the press since 1984, most recently as v-p and director of administration. David Horton will become v-p/editorial, fiction. He has been with Bethany since 1998, most recently as editorial director, fiction and was previously at Tyndale House, Scripture Press and Cook Communications (now David C. Cook).

The Johnsons will continue to work part-time for Bethany House, focusing on acquisitions and special projects.