Earl Lynn Johnson
Died at home on January 26, 2015, of pancreatic cancer. Earl was born March 7, 1940, in Crystal Lake, Illinois, and grew up there, then moved to Batavia, Illinois, in 1955, living with his father and stepmother and graduating from high school. Earl became a professional student, meeting his future wife in 1964 in Chicago, where they had a tumultuous romance. Alas, his student deferment failed and he was drafted into the army in 1965, and after being told he would be kept at Ft. Knox as an instructor, convinced Sharon to marry him. A week later he had orders for Okinawa. Sharon got there 36 days later, a full two months faster than authorized officers’ wives did. It turned out to be an 18-month honeymoon, with travel, sightseeing, and participating in a different culture. Their son Erik was born there.
Upon return to the States Earl finished his B.S. in mechanical and aerospace engineering at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago. Their daughter Karin was born there in 1969. After Earl graduated in 1970 the family moved to Orinda, California, in the San Francisco Bay area. There Earl worked first for Bechtel, then for Kaiser Engineers, and finally EDS Nuclear before founding a small multi-disciplinary architectural-engineering firm, Johnson Engineering Corporation, in 1980. In 1977, while at Kaiser, he received his MBA from St. Mary’s College in Moraga, California. He was a member of a number of professional engineering and management associations.
In 1996, after “the kids grew up and the dog died,” he and his wife Sharon shopped for a new city and area and chose Portland, Oregon. There he continued his engineering career with a small mechanical firm, then moved on to become the NW project manager for Illinova Energy Projects during electrical deregulation (think Enron), developing industrial energy conservation projects. When the company merged, he spent a short time working for NW Natural and then ran mechanical construction at a computer chip plant. After a year, he again went independent and began providing energy conservation analyses and design to a wide range of NW commercial and industrial facilities.
In 2003, he was hired to support the by the contractor’s contract in Oregon for the Energy Trust’s New Buildings program. The program was quite successful, and received several awards. As part of this he organized and ran BSUG (Building Energy Simulation Forum) for the Energy Trust, increasing its membership to over 1,000 members nationwide, which led to his receiving the 2008 award of Energy Manager of the Year from the Oregon Association Professional Energy Managers.
Earl and his family loved the west and the wilderness; they hiked, backpacked, car camped, cross country skied, fished, and sailed; Earl became an avid cyclist and also participated in Paddle Oregon. Earl loved reading history and built a telescope when he got interested in astronomy.
But the fifty year relationship with his wife Sharon was what made his life a happy, joyous, and fulfilling one.
Earl is survived by his wife Sharon, son Erik, and daughter Karin. He will be interred in the Willamette National Cemetery. Private ceremonies are planned. Memorial contributions to organizations that promote education and personal liberties such as the Multnomah County Library or the ACLU, or that directly help those in need such as the Oregon Food Bank or Compassion and Choices, would be appreciated.