Pi Kappa Alpha - University of Texas

The Beta Mu Review M ilton Johnson '64 of Santa Fe, New Mexico's Montecristi Custom Hats is one of the most successful, influential hatmakers in the world. The soft-spoken, reserved Texas native can tell you a great deal about hats. His forebears likely knew the value of a good hat to shield one from the Texas sun and rain. "My family left Bandera, Texas, in 1903 in a covered wagon to head to Fort Worth, a growing cattle town at the time in north Texas," says Johnson. The family settled in what has since become suburban east Fort Worth. Johnson grew up in Fort Worth and attended The University of Texas beginning in 1962, with the thought of law school after college. He pledged PIKE as a sophomore and was initiated in 1964. His peers elected him social chairman, and he served as chapter president. Johnson notes he succeeded Joe Wyatt '63 as president, who later became a U.S. Congressman from Victoria. "[The late] Stan McLelland '64, along with Joe, were big campus politicos that raised PIKE's profile on campus in that era too," recalls Johnson. Johnson interrupted college in 1967 to serve in Vietnam in the Marine Corps. He returned to Austin and completed a government degree in 1970. Johnson remembers a close pledge class that bonded during pledgeship and a great brotherhood and vibrant social life at the fraternity. "Despite great effort, my fellow PIKE pledges and the Tri Delts were not particularly successful at Sing Song competition. Phil Maxwell '63 (now an Austin attorney) tried his best to rehearse us with several songs from The Sound of Music. Try as we did, we just didn't have the voices to win the competition!" Johnson says with a laugh. Johnson excitedly remembers a PIKE Longhorn football highlight. Coming off the 1963 National Championship year, brother Garry Brown '62 (today an attorney in Waxahachie) was a Longhorn wide receiver playing under legendary Coach Darrell K. Royal. "In the 1964 Thanksgiving game at home against Texas A&M, with 2.5 minutes left in the game, Royal put Garry in on defense, where he made two tackles and then stayed in on offense and caught a touchdown! The Horns won that game, went 10-1 for the season and defeated Alabama in the Orange Bowl." Doug Phelan '65 (longtime Beta Mu Chapter Advisor, Austin investment adviser and entrepreneur) remembers Johnson fondly as a "cool" upperclassman who was well-liked. "As a young pledge, one quickly learned you did not want to play poker with Milton Johnson; he was good! He reminded me of the character Paul Newman played in Cool Hand Luke. He was cooler than cool." Johnson credits PIKE with being a big part of his formative years. "I think PIKE has had a lot to do with the person I am today. That bond of friendship with Pikes goes back, though I don't see many brothers these days." Johnson does see his pledge brother Jim Overton '64 frequently in Santa Fe, where Overton has lived since concluding a distinguished journalism and media career and now works in residential real estate brokerage. After completing his degree, Johnson opened an early natural foods restaurant that also featured Indonesian cuisine in South Austin. He sold that venture 1.5 years later and, being influenced by the very popular Gabriel Garcia Marquez book One Hundred Years of Solitude and its fictional town of Macondo, Johnson, filled with what he calls a "sense of wanderlust," took his restaurant sale earnings in 1971 and set out for Medellin, Colombia, to build a textile and artifacts business in South America. Working on-and-off for several years with his new wife in South America (he is the father of three children, one of whom works today with the business after a successful career in marketing with Patron spirits), Johnson traveled in five countries dealing in textile sourcing, including selling materials to the well-known Manny Gammage of Texas Hatters in Austin. An exterior view of Montecristi Custom Hats. Meet Milton R. Johnson RENOWNED PANAMA AND COWBOY HAT MAKER, HEADGEAR INFLUENCER

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