Mr. Gary C. Johnson of Rock Island, Illinois, died on April 12, 2025; age 82, at the Trinity Medical Center in Rock Island. Memorials may be made to the Alzheimer's Association.

He was born in Denison, Iowa, to attorney Charles and Gladys Johnson, high school English teacher.  There is a link to his autobiography of his childhood included below.  Unfortunately, he didn't update the stories of his life in his own words, words that always delighted and surprised me. But to augment what he left out in his 12th grade paper, I will incompletely list the following activities and milestones of his youth and later times:

Merlin in a school play, Lifeguard at the City Pool, 2nd Chair Trumpet in State of Iowa High School orchestra. He memorized long poems, such as Poe's Raven.

In his junior year, he noticed Paula B. at the Band Bus when they were unloading their instruments, trumpet and French horn.  Gary braved many adventures in his ensuing courtship of Paula.

He attended the University of Iowa where he majored in English.  He joined the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity and supported his brothers with his relatively virtuous personal habits (lifelong non-smoker) and high gpa. He sang in the Old Gold Singers with Simon Estes, later a famous tenor in Europe. He also sang folk songs with guitar, which he would later sing to his daughter. He graduated in 1965.

Gary matriculated at the Law School at U of Iowa that same year. His various means to support his tuition included selling Fuller brushes door to door, night clerking in a hotel. Paula had graduated from Coe College in Cedar Rapids, IA, as an RN, and supported them by nursing in surgery at the University Hospital in Iowa City.

He married Paula in September, 1966!  And in 1968, he graduated law school, passed the bar, had a baby daughter (Holly) moved to Rock Island, IL, where he found employment as a lawyer at the headquarters (Supreme Office) of Royal Neighbors of America, specializing in life insurance claims and fraternal law, seemed like a great first job.

My dad and mom have been inseparable since 1966. Dad stayed at RNA instead of pursuing trial law, wanting to give us Quantity not just Quality time, and while he may have failed to stop me from writing run on sentences and using too many comas, he did make learning Chess fun, he recited "winkin, blinkin, and knod" on demand every night, he let me go running with him, drove me deep into the country to buy me a beagle puppy, flew kites, went with me to Astronomy club meetings, took me to "Star Wars, A new hope." ETC!!! He ensured I went to college (another English Major) then my flight school. He told me he flew in his dreams: I needed the airplane. When he was running Marathons and the Bix, he taught me to run long distances.

All along, my whole life, Dad assiduously planned epic vacations for the three of us, and later including all my cousins, so that we could share vivid memories, knowing that the memories you make with loved ones are the treasures of our hearts on earth.  Short highlight list, very short:  My first plane ride, in a Delta B727, was to Orlando when I was 7. Tours in Hawaii, driving an Oldsmobile Sierra up to the Hopi 3rd Mesa with no guardrails, bicycling around Mackinaw Island, the top floor at the Drake in Chicago, Broadway plays in NYC, ferry boats to Alaska, Stonehenge, Ireland……and a hundred more trips because in addition to big trips we didn't hesitate to "staycation" and go to nearby festivals, art shows, concerts.

Dad and mom went to International Claims Association conventions annually, eventually dad became President 1998-1999.  He became the General Counsel of Royal Neighbors of America in the late 20th century, and retired from there in the early 2000's.

Gary is survived by his wife Paula, daughter Holly, Granddaughter Hanna, great-grandsons Jonathan and Benny, Ashley, sisters-in-law Pam and Patti and their husbands Jim and Ted, his nieces and nephews Patrick, Kelly, Victoria, Diana, William, Mary, Bruce, Barry, and Erika; and his brother David.

He was a member of Kiwanis, Lion's Club, Royal Neighbors of America, and the First United Methodist Church of Rock Island.

He carried in his wallet the first stanza of "the Hymn of Empedocles," by Matthew Arnold.  (see below). He gave mom the Isla Pascal Richardson quotation, "Grieve not, nor speak of me with tears, but laugh and talk of me as if I were beside you. –'twas Heaven here with you."

Also in his wallet, "I can see how it might be possible for a man to look down upon the earth and be an atheist, but I cannot conceive how a man could look up into the heavens and say there is no God."--- Abraham Lincoln

The Hymn of Empedocles

Is it so small a thing To have enjoy'd the sun, To have lived light in the spring, To have loved, to have thought, to have done; To have advanced true friends, and beat down baffling foes; That we must feign a bliss Of doubtful future date, And while we dream on this Lose all our present state, And relegate to worlds yet distant our repose? Not much, I know, you prize What pleasures may be had, Who look on life with eyes Estranged, like mine, and sad: And yet the village churl feels the truth more than you; Who 's loth to leave this life Which to him little yields: His hard-task'd sunburnt wife, His often-labour'd fields; The boors with whom he talk'd, the country spots he knew. But thou, because thou hear'st Men scoff at Heaven and Fate; Because the gods thou fear'st Fail to make blest thy state, Tremblest, and wilt not dare to trust the joys there are. I say, Fear not! life still Leaves human effort scope. But, since life teems with ill, Nurse no extravagant hope. Because thou must not dream, thou need'st not then despair.

The Hymn of Empedocles, by Matthew Arnold