A Wonderful Life

In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on.

Robert Frost

Billy Wayne (Bill) Johnson
1925 – 2016

Billy Wayne (Bill) Johnson died at home in hospice care in Gulfport, Mississippi on May 8, 2016 at the age of 91.

Bill was born in 1925 in Sanford, FL, the son of Britton and Caroline (Charlie) Johnson. He was an active Boy Scout, and one of the first to achieve the rank of Eagle Scout in the state of Florida. He graduated from Seminole High School in Sanford where he was the President of the Senior Class and entered the U.S. Army Air Corps for training as a B-17 bombardier. He was preparing to deploy to the Pacific when WWII ended. After the war he attended Temple University and Georgetown College in Georgetown, Kentucky. After graduating with a B.A. degree in Chemistry from Georgetown in 1950, he attended the University of Louisville Medical School 1950-1952, then entered industry as an engineering chemist.

In 1960 Bill married the former Rachel Day Rhodes and adopted her two children, Stephen and Caroline. Together they had another child, Wendy Rachel Johnson. In 1979 Bill retired from the Archer Products aluminum foil manufacturing division of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company and moved to Gulfport as a key member of the startup team of the E.I. DuPont TiO2 manufacturing plant in Pass Christian. He retired from DuPont in 1993. After retirement he was active in the community; his Church, St. Joseph’s Catholic Church, Gulfport, where he served as an Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion; and as a frequent volunteer at Windance Golf Club, being recognized as “Volunteer of the Year” on multiple occasions. Over the past 23 years “Mr. Bill” has assisted at hundreds of golf tournaments held at the course, most recently in February of this year.

Throughout his life Bill was a quiet hero: a great son, a great employee, a great boss, a great neighbor, a great friend, a great husband and a great father. He made a positive difference in every life he touched.

Bill was preceded in death by his parents, his brother Harold F. Johnson, and his daughter Caroline Mary Johnson Hurley. He is survived by his wife Rachel; his son, Rear Admiral Stephen I. Johnson, U.S. Navy (ret.) and his wife Melissa Daves Johnson (Spartanburg, SC); his daughter Wendy Rachel Johnson (Madison, MS); His son-in-law, Michael Colon Hurley (High Point, NC); his Granddaughter Sherilyn Rae Johnson (Charlotte, NC); his Grandson, The Reverend Brian William Johnson (Haymarket, VA) and his wife Kimberly White Johnson; and his two Great-grandsons, Jeremiah Ambrose Johnson and Ezekiel Frederick Jonah Johnson.

A private family memorial service is planned for a later date.

The family requests no flowers, and that instead Memorials be made to the St. Vincent De Paul Society ministry of St. Joseph’s Catholic Church, 12290 Depew Road, Gulfport, MS 39503 or to a charity of choice.