Gary Lee Johnson

Gary Lee Johnson was born on a farm west of Osage City, KS on November 20, 1938. He lived in a four room share croppers house (without electricity or running water) for 12 years until his dad was able to buy a quarter section of poor upland. He missed a year of school in the third grade due to an undiagnosed milk tolerance which gave him a stomach ache and a low grade fever. This started a lifetime of dealing with various food intolerances and other physical constraints. He had no musical ability and lacked the stamina and coordination to participate in sports.

He watched doctors give up on him while lying in a hospital bed at age 7. This led to a decision to stay as close to God as possible in whatever time he had on earth. He came to understand that God does not make mistakes and that life with Jesus is abundant (John 10:10). He also made the decision to focus on what he was able to do with some proficiency, and to not whine about the physical constraints.

He was valedictorian of his Osage City High School class of about 40, and studied electrical engineering at Kansas State University on a full ride scholarship. He married Jolene Hazen on September 2, 1960, at the start of his senior year. He received his BS degree in 1961 and his MS in 1963, both from Kansas State University, and his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Oklahoma State University in 1966. He moved back to KSU to start a teaching career that lasted for 28 years. He was a popular teacher, teaching mostly the introductory undergraduate courses, and won several teaching awards.

He wrote a book, “Wind Energy Systems”, published by Prentice-Hall in 1985. He taught an elective course on wind power for 15 different semesters to a total of over 430 engineering students. This led to a phone call from Oxbow Power Corporation during the last year at KSU, to offer a consulting job of finding a site for a Kansas wind farm. He worked for Oxbow for two years and set up wind speed measuring equipment on a large ranch near the little town of Beaumont, KS. Oxbow changed direction, so Gary worked directly for the rancher for the next 8 years, measuring the wind, writing reports, and advocating a wind farm on the ranch. The 150 MW Elk River Wind Farm became reality and is supplying clean electricity to the customers of Empire District in Joplin, MO.

Gary enjoyed traveling with his family. While the children were at home, he would load Jolene, Kirk, Janel, and Jolene’s mother in the car each summer for long car trips. It was Mexico City one year, Seattle another year, etc. There were also plane trips, 12 times across the Atlantic, and 3 times to Hawaii. He visited all 50 states and 25 countries. He drove to the end of the paved road at all the corners and edges of the 50 states. In over 500 nights away from home on these trips, there was always a bed to sleep in. No trip plans had to be changed because of accidents, equipment failure, or bad weather. There was even always a place to park, with the one exception being Monaco. He was not on vacation from God, so he always sought out a church to attend. He listened to sermons in Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, German, French, and Arabic, among others.

The Arabic speaking church was a small Catholic church in Kuwait City. There are two churches in the country of Kuwait, and the driver could not find the Protestant church. Gary was there to review the program at the Kuwait Institute of Technology, a two year school teaching topics of electric power systems, and suggest how their students could come to KSU and finish a four year degree. The invitation to review the program was totally unexpected but came just after Gary and Jolene agreed in prayer to ask for a paid trip overseas. They spent a week in Kuwait and then a long weekend in London on the way back, a thoroughly enjoyable time. Then five years later, April of 1991, God told Gary to pray for the church in Kuwait, which he did regularly for some months. Iraq invaded Kuwait in August of 1991, revealing the need of prayer for everyone in Kuwait, and especially the Christians. Gary and Jolene visited an Arab church in Bethlehem in 1994, where Gary was privileged to tell this story, and emphasize that God loves the Arabs just like God loves the Jews. There will be a memorial service for Gary that will be added to this page later this week.

In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital or Eden Ministries: C/O Goshen Christian Church, 2133 Berkey Ave. Goshen, IN 46526.

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