Alfred Lacy Johnson

On March 8, 1921, in Warren, Pa., a boy was born to Alfred and Laura Mohr Johnson. They named him Alfred after his father and Lacy after their friends next door. He was the first of five children, four sons and a daughter who was born in the middle. Lacy was raised in Warren and grew to love baseball, football, hunting, camping, trapping, and flying airplanes. He learned a lot through the Boy Scouts and achieved the Eagle Scout award. In his teens, he accepted Jesus Christ as his Savior and sought to follow His leading throughout his life.

Following graduation from high school, Dad began college majoring in forestry. He enjoyed boxing, was on the pistol club, and practiced archery for Field Day by shooting arrows through his second floor dorm window. He ran a trap line to help with school costs, skinning and stretching the hides in the dorm furnace room. He and a friend wanted to go duck hunting so they built a boat in their room, probably the only one ever built in a Penn State dorm room. He took a break from school to go out west with his best buddy. They traveled by hitchhiking, riding trains without tickets, and then upgraded to a motorcycle. They went through Pocatello, Twin Falls, and Boise, Idaho, on their way to work at a logging camp, and later on to work with a rancher on the Olympic Peninsula.

Dad returned home and enlisted in the Army Air Corps, forerunner of the US Air Force. It was during WW2. Dad flew B17s, B29s, B24s, and taught enlistees to become pilots. It was a very sobering time for Dad as many of the men he had trained died in service to their country and the world.

After his service, Dad returned home, began a landscaping business, resumed trapping, hunting, and flying. He had become interested in a friend of his sister's and on December 17, 1947, he and Virginia (Ginny) Fredrickson were married. They headed west for a 3 month honeymoon (again going through Pocatello, Twin Falls, and Boise), eventually living in a 2 room cabin on the Olympic Peninsula; one room for them, the other to house the hanging elk and deer. Their marriage lasted 58 years until Mom's death in 2005.

Mom encouraged Dad to return to college. He did and graduated with a degree in Forestry from Penn State in 1950. He also became a father that year when their first daughter was born. Dad was hired by the US Forest Service and moved his family to Juneau, Alaska, where 2 more daughters were born and many, many adventures occurred. He was a district ranger for the largest district in the US, larger than some states and thoroughly enjoyed exploring it!

To be closer to family, Dad was transferred to Ely, Minnesota, in 1958. He was a district ranger but also got to use his flying skills taking smoke jumpers in to fires in Minnesota and various locations in the West over several years. 2 more daughters were born making a total of 5 daughters. Dad was always on the quiet side, but with 6 females in the house, he didn't have a lot of opportunity to say much! He did teach us all to hunt and sometimes let us steer when he was flying.

Dad's final transfer was to Marietta, Ohio, in 1966 where his primary responsibility was to evaluate and purchase land to increase the Wayne National Forest. He retired from the USFS in 1979 and then became a consulting forester and built a tree farm.

In 1995 with Mom's advancing Alzheimer's and no daughters in Ohio, Dad and Mom moved to Twin Falls, Idaho. Having gone through the 1929 depression, Dad was quite a saver. Sorting household and business and hunting/trapping/camping equipment, etc, was a major undertaking!

In Idaho, they enjoyed many hours watching their grandsons play various sports and camping and spending holidays with family. Dad also continued hunting, trapping, and bought a plane. Mom died in 2005. Dad was then able to do some travelling going to Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, Switzerland, South Africa, and all the way through Alaska to Prudhoe Bay. He also visited family and friends all over the lower 48. He was able to hunt with all six grandsons and a grandson-in-law in addition to daughters and sons-in-law.

Due to complications from a fall, Dad is now in Heaven with the Lord, his parents, siblings, precious wife Virginia, granddaughter Alissa Taylor and grandson Mitchell Stewart.  He is survived by his daughters Deborah Powell, Cynthia Hausser, Suzanne (John) Crouch, Marilyn Johnson-Gran (Frank), and Kirsten (Kurt) Stewart; his grandchildren Jonathan ( Kathryn) Powell, Jeremy (Katie) Powell, Gretchen Hausser, Joanne (Abel) Steele, Jake Taylor, Lynnea Taylor, Danielle Crouch, Shannon (Rick) Estremera, Heidi Gran, Jared Stewart, Health Stewart, 11 great grandchildren, and numerous nieces and nephews.

Through almost a century, our dad has been an example of caring, kindness, patience, consistency, and helpfulness though out his life for which we, his family, are deeply grateful.