John Arnold Johnson
HOLLYWOOD — On Sunday, March 27, 2022, John Arnold Johnson completed his final mission. He was 84.
Born in Chicago, Illinois, December 11, 1937, he was the only child of John Bertram Matland Johnson and Esther Marie Hannibal, both first-generation NorwegianAmericans.
John was a lifelong advocate for and a personal example of volunteering and service to others. He was a Boy Scout (1952 Eagle Scout), a member of the American Red Cross, the Civil Air Patrol, the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary, the Sea Scouts, the US Power Squadron, and more. He volunteered at Historic St. Mary’s City with the crew of the Maryland Dove, the Calvert Marine Museum and the Patuxent River Naval Air Museum. He taught first aid, CPR, weather classes, boating safety, disaster preparedness / response, and rarely missed an opportunity to teach, to anyone interested, how to tie a decent bowline.
John attended Lane Tech College Prep High School in Chicago, but graduated from Hampton High School in Virginia, where he served as yearbook photographer and helped establish an integrated Chess Club.
John earned a BS in Aeronautical Engineering from the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, VA. As a member and commander of the Civil Air Patrol Albemarle Squadron, John assisted in many search-and-rescue missions in the Virginia mountains,. He also volunteered as a lifeguard, first aid and water safety instructor, and helped found the Charlottesville-Albemarle Rescue Squad in 1959.
John received his Naval Commission in
Newport, Rhode Island in 1960 and was stationed at Point Mugu in Ventura County, California in 1961. While assigned as Navy Plant representative for McDonnell Aircraft in St. Louis, Missouri in 1963, he met his future wife, a nursing student named Audrey. They married December 17, 1966, in Monterey California where John was attending Naval Postgraduate School. While on active duty, John served aboard the USS America CVA- 66 on its first combat deployment to Vietnam in the Tonkin Gulf. After his release from active duty in 1971, John completed his MS degree at Embry-Riddle University. Then in 1974, John took a job at Patuxent River Naval Air Station, in St. Mary’s County, Maryland.
For the next four decades John balanced a very busy life while continuing to volunteer, often wearing ( literally) multiple hats. On summer weekends he would join crewmembers on ‘Bay Patrol’, keeping a watchful eye out for anyone in distress on the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries. Later he assisted from a shorebased point of operations at the Cove Point Lighthouse, coordinating radio communications for the patrol in the air and on the water. He was especially proud of the younger generation of cadets and scouts he oversaw taking on these same responsibilities.
Later in life, at a slightly slower pace, he became a bit of a fixture with his knot-tying demonstrations at the Calvert Marine Museum’s ‘First Fridays’ and the Maryland Dove dock in St. Mary’s City.
John’s life work was cut short. He successfully fought lymphoma but developed acute respiratory distress syndrome in March and, after exhausting all possible options, passed away peacefully in Vero Beach, Florida.
John was predeceased by his wife Audrey and his parents, John and Esther. Left to cherish his memory are his two daughters, Kiri and Viki, and his three granddaughters, Megan, Madeline, and Meredith.
A memorial service for John will be planned for later this year.