An assistant dean of the University’s graduate school – remembered for his supportive and understanding nature – died Thursday.

Michael A. Johnson, 44, died in Lavonia, a small city in Northeast Georgia. Lavonia Police Chief Bruce Carlisle said Friday morning evidence suggests Johnson died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

The cause of death will not be officially determined until the results of an autopsy are released later Friday.

Carlisle said Johnson was spotted parked outside the Sleep Inn – where Johnson had rented a room – by several Inn employees. Employees called the police department around noon, Carlisle said, and he estimated the shot was fired between 10:30 a.m. and noon. No one heard the gunshot, Carlisle said.

According to the Lavonia Police incident report, three suicide notes were found inside Johnson’s day planner in his hotel room.

A housekeeper at the Sleep Inn saw from a hotel room window “someone sitting in a car, not moving,” said R.M. Patel, the general manager of Sleep Inn.

He said the housekeeper notified the police immediately.

“We prayed for him,” Patel said. “We were glad to know he was still doing good when they took him,” indicating Johnson was still alive when he was taken to the hospital, which was confirmed by the incident report. He was shot in the abdomen, the report states.

Johnson died at 3 p.m., according to the incident report.

Patel said Johnson had checked out a room on Wednesday night and was scheduled to check out on Thursday. He said Johnson has never stayed at the hotel before.

Tom Jackson, vice president of Public Affairs, said Johnson was carried to Greenville Memorial Hospital in South Carolina.

University President Michael Adams expressed his condolences in a statement to the University community.

“The entire University community is shocked by the tragic death of Michael Johnson,” Adams said. “Our deepest sympathies go out to his family and all the members of the University community that knew and appreciated him.”

Erin Matten, a University graduate student, said she worked for Johnson during her first year of graduate school.

“He is one of the best people I have ever worked with,” she said in a phone interview Thursday evening. “He went out of his way to be supportive.”

She said her first year of graduate school was a tough transition, and Johnson helped her acclimate.

“He was wonderful – offering support and being very understanding. He was just a great person in general,” she said.

Matten said she met Johnson in September 2007 and worked for him as a graduate assistant until May 2008.

She said Johnson was working toward a Ph.D and taking classes while working as assistant dean.

“He was really very interesting – he had a lot of diverse experiences. When you walked into his office, it was a hodgepodge of stuff he had picked up from all over the place — he is well-traveled – and it was always cool to hear his stories,” she said.

“I know he grew up in rural Tennessee because he would always talk about growing up in the Appalachian.”

She also said Johnson was “really into his BMW motorcycle, I know he always really enjoyed it.”

Johnson was from Elizabethton, Tenn. He began his career in undergraduate enrollment management and graduated from Milligan College in 1986, and from East Tennessee State University in 1996, with a master’s degree in public health.

As vice president at Milligan College, his leadership led to a 40 percent growth in enrollment and increases in the GPA and ACT scores of incoming students. In 2002 he became the assistant dean of the graduate school at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Under his leadership, applications increased by 19 percent and the graduate enrollment soared.

Johnson came to the University in July 2004 as an assistant dean for the graduate school, where he assisted graduate programs and developed recruitment plans. He was also in charge of diversifying the graduate student population.

During the last few years the number of students pursuing a graduate degree increased by 7 percent and the number of African American graduate students increased by more than 40 percent.