Obit: Johnson, Gordon (1924 – 2001)

Contact: Linda Mertens

Email: mertens@wiclarkcountyhistory.org 

Surnames:  Johnson, Schumacher, Klink, Larson, Miller

 ----Source - Helen Johnson's Scrapbook

Gordon Harold Johnson (10 Apr 1924 - 31 Dec 2001)

Friends and family are invited to a Memorial Mass for Gordon Harold Johnson, to be held Friday, June 28, at 10:30 a.m., at St. Louis Catholic Church, Dorchester, Wisconsin.  After his internment at the Dorchester Cemetery, Gordon’s children will receive friends and family at the church hall for lunch.

Mr. Johnson died at home in Portland, Oregon, on December 31, 2001.  He was 77.  A retired salesman and a veteran of World War II.  Gordon Johnson was born April 10, 1924 on a farm in the township of Little Black.  His parents were Axel and Martha Johnson.  Gordon attended Medford area schools and graduated from Medford High School in 1942.  In World War II he served in the Coast Guard, first on the USS Evansville in the North Atlantic and later on the amphibious landing ship AKA18 in the Pacific.  On July 3, 1947 he married Cecelia Schumacher, the daughter of Peter and Goldie Schumacher, in St. Louis Catholic Church, in Dorchester.

Gordon Johnson graduated from the University of Wisconsin at Madison in January 1950 with a degree in business economics.  He was employed as a distributor by the Monarch Company of Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, from 1950 to 1972 and by Pay Less Drugstores from 1972 to 1988, when he retired.  In retirement he worked part time delivering automobiles between car dealers in Oregon.

Gordon Johnson lived in the town of Indiana, Pennsylvania, from 1952 to 1965 and in Corvallis, Oregon, from 1965 to 1974.  After two years in McMinnville, Oregon, he and Cecelia moved to Newport in 1976.  He moved to Portland after Cecelia’s death in 2000.  From the early nineteen fifties to the late nineteen nineties, Gordon traveled to Taylor County almost every year to visit relatives and friends.

Gordon Johnson is survived by three sons, Steve (Yonkers, New York), Dave (Portland, Oregon) Bob (Eugene, Oregon) and a daughter, Patti Klink (Bellevue, Washington); six grandchildren; and two sisters, Hilda Larson and Esther Miller, both of Medford.  Cecelia Johnson, his wife, died on May 27, 2000.  Gordon and Cecelia were married fifty-two years.  Gordon was predeceased by four brothers and three sisters.

Mr. Johnson was a Grand Knight of the Knights of Columbus and a parishioner at Sacred Heart church in Newport, Oregon.  His favorite activities included driving, cross country travel by car and motorhome and playing cards.  In Newport he sang in a barbershop choral group.  He also volunteered at the local food bank and in numerous Knights of Columbus activities.