#28026 Vanessa Johnson first visited Camp Dudley on her Adirondack honeymoon in 1996 because her husband, #13426 Ned Johnson, wanted to show her his grandfather’s special place called “Button Beach.” Ned and his twin brother were fourth-generation Dudley campers, descending from #608 Edward C. Suffern. 

Vanessa felt right at home on the Dudley campus thanks to spending 10 years as a camper and counselor at all-girls Camp Birchwood in northern Minnesota and attending Williams College. She and Ned, along with their two young children, attended the Dudley Reunion for the first time in 2006. They had stumbled upon a property they were interested in purchasing in Elizabethtown and figured they could introduce their son to Camp and meet the real estate agent. Naturally, the real estate agent was Annie McKinley, who was also at the Dudley Reunion. After the purchase finished “quicker than a first Michigan”, Annie connected the Johnsons with #9933 Bob “Wags” Wagner, who then updated and built several structures on their property.  

Vanessa has been fortunate to spend every summer since 2007 in Elizabethtown, making it easy to drop #22526 Matthew (Matt) at Dudley and #22926 Katie at Kiniya as well as host several Washington DC area families picking up their campers and other Dudleyites wanting to hike the High Peaks.

After several years at home with her children, Vanessa made use of her BA in Classics from Williams and an MA in Latin from the University of Maryland, returning the classroom full-time teaching Latin. She has tutored Latin privately and for her husband’s company, PrepMatters, and has taught in several schools in the Washington, DC area over the last 30 years. Vanessa is now in her 10th year at St. Albans School for boys, which feels like the school-year version of Dudley.

The Johnson family connection to Dudley continues with Matt serving as the pianist for Chapel and Hymn Sing for the past three years and contributing his own version of “Now the Day is Over” to the “Lullabies for Future Campers” album, as well as Ned giving a Chapel Talk in 2025.  Vanessa is excited to serve on the Board as a way to give back to a community that has supported her family in so many ways over many, many years. And, now Vanessa proudly wears her own camp number, #28026!