Edward Raymond Johnston
April 26, 1917 - October 26, 2010
Obituary
Edward Raymond Johnston
Born in Aberdeen, Washington April 26, 1917
Departed on October 26, 2010
and resided in Issaquah, Washington
Edward Raymond Johnston was born in Aberdeen, WA to James Raymond Johnston and Grace Catherine Brownell Johnston. Ed’s first few years were spent in Aberdeen, and when he was around three years old, the family moved to Raymond, about 35 miles south of Aberdeen. Grandpa Johnson had purchased timber at Nemah River and all male members of the family were involved in the logging operation. Ed’s father was a civil engineer, having graduated from the University of Washington, and he laid out the best locations for the railroad tracks for logging sites.
The family spent their summers in Tokeland, WA, where they had a summer house. Ed remembered many exciting events from his childhood, including the arrival of the Navy airship Akron, a large rigid dirigible which was on tour of the United States. During the 6th grade, Charles Lindberg arrived in his Ryan NX211 airplane and they were let out of school to see him fly over. Lindberg was on tour after his successful non-stop flight over the Atlantic Ocean to Le Bourget Airport in Paris. By the age of 11, Ed was gaining an interest in airplanes and had begun designing and building balsawood stick and tissue scale rubber powered flying models. He amassed a large fleet of flying airplane models that were hung in the attic of the house in Aberdeen. This was the beginning of his life-long passion for aviation.
When the 1929 market crash came along, Ed and his sister Betty had substantial savings accounts at the Aberdeen Savings and Loan, but thinking the money would be pretty worthless, he was allowed to withdraw $12.00 for purchase of a folding camera, which became his favorite for taking pictures of airplanes. Ed earned a Star Scout rating through the aviation merit badge. This was accomplishing by flying his pusher flying model at the National Guard Armory.
Growing up, Ed had many stories to tell of aviators he saw and met and his love of aviation grew. Much of his time was spent around airplanes. He began writing a diary when he was 14 years old, which was filled with his notes about aircraft models. At age 16, he became interested in sharing some of his pictures of airplanes with others. He and a friend named Gordon Williams who lived near Sandpoint in Seattle were part of a club that traded photos of airplanes. During this time people could not afford to have photo shops develop film so all of these budding photographers had to do their own film developing and make their own prints and copies at home. They also had to construct their own dark rooms, typically in the family basement. Once they had made copies of aircraft photos they would correspond through the U.S. Mail and trade photos back and forth. This club and others like it were far reaching and included members throughout the U.S.A. as well as some international members too! The members would go on to make additional contributions to the aviation industry and through their efforts record much history of aviation that we have today.
During 1934, Ed met Virginia Caldwell, the daughter of George Caldwell, one of the logging Big Six brothers and they became friends. Ed graduated from Weatherwax High School in Aberdeen in 1935. During his years at Weatherwax, he played the clarinet and saxophone at local dances as part of a band.
Upon graduation from High School, he knew he wanted to be involved in aviation and developed a desire to become an aircraft engineer. He entered the University of Washington and became a member of Theta Delta Chi fraternity.
In 1940 at the age of 23, Ed married Virginia Caldwell in Aberdeen. After the wedding, Ed and Virginia boarded their Model A Ford Coupe and traveled to Los Angeles where he attended the Art Center School to learn about photography, art and motion pictures. They had a son, Byron James Johnston, born in 1942.
Shortly before completing his education, he began looking for a position in the movie studios. The best offer was in Special Effects at MGM Studios, Hollywood. A family member’s illness prevented his acceptance of that job and he and Virginia returned to Aberdeen. The search for a job continued in the Seattle area and he joined the Boeing Company. He was a photographer at the old Boeing plant #1 – the Boeing 314 China Clipper flying boats were being built for Pan American Airways at that time. Ed took construction photographs at night and they were excellent.
Another night photo he took was of the B-17 with the four engines running. For its day, it was a dynamic and stunning photo that captured the excitement of aviation. Prints of this were sent by the Publicity Department to newspapers and magazines and the picture gained excellent exposure and comments across the nation. With the success of his photography at Boeing, he contacted Engineering management with the suggestion that they should start a motion picture unit. This was to produce training films on operation and maintenance of bombers. They agreed. As the movie unit developed, they were given a location at Boeing’s Plant 3. Today this is the Kenworth Truck assembly plant. There was minimal space at first, but grew as interest expanded. There were three writers, four artists, and two cameramen. In addition to camera work, Ed also worked on the animation camera and most of the work at that time was on the B-17 bombers. Filming was done all over the west, including El Paso, Albuquerque, and Clovis, New Mexico.
On one of his trips south, he met Helen Margaret Peg Wolf, an artist working for Screen Gems, a part of Columbia Pictures. She was inking and painting the cells used in the animation sequences of Pop Eye Cartoons. She assisted Ed on a training film project for Boeing.
His marriage to Virginia ended in 1945. As the war ended, there were other avenues of opportunity and Vern Witt and Ed decided to leave Boeing and create their own motion picture studio, making commercial films. With a sponsor, Boris Korry, they set up the new business in downtown Seattle called Korry Films. They created commercials which were played prior to cinema films.
Ed and Peg got married in 1946 and they eventually lived in the Normandy Park area of Seattle. They had two sons, Edward in 1949 and Steven in 1957.
Later Ed was a part of Criterion Films, A photographer at the Long Acers horse racing track and formed Bonniewood Orchids to grow and sell orchids from all over the world to the Seattle area. At this time orchid corsages were a part of formal dances for adult women and girls in high school as well. He also became a judge at regional orchid contests.
Ed became involved with a team of people in the development and growth of the Ocean Shores area. Many weekend trips were made back and forth through Aberdeen to the Ocean.
During his time at Weyerhaeuser he was the regional sales manager promoting products from those same forests that his father had worked in years before. His experience at Bonniewood Orchids helped him bring a new product to Weyerhaeuser, bags of Douglas Fir bark as mulch for retail garden products.
In 1965 Ed started flying and in short order purchased a new Mooney Mark 21 4 place single engine airplane. For the next 26 years he and the family flew throughout the western U.S.A., Canada and Mexico. Through his influence Peg, Ed Jr., and Steve all became pilots and aircraft owners.
His marriage with Peg Johnston ended in 1977. After leaving Weyerhaeuser he formed another company and focused on soil stabilization utilizing Douglas fir bark as a main ingredient. He also became an expert on potato diseases and created advertising for his and others products. He traveled throughout the U.S.A. and to distant countries including Spain and Mexico to advise on these issues.
He married Bonnie Lawler in 1978 and became a father again with Bonnie’s adopted daughter Teresa.
Later in life he attended a performance of the Nutcracker, fell in love with Ballet and was a season-ticket holder with Seattle Ballet for many years. He also traveled to London England to take in the sights and attend some holiday performances.
Ed was a personable character with an inquisitive mind, one who loved to learn. He had a lifelong love of aviation, photography and the lumber industry in the Pacific Northwest.
He and a few others of his generation contributed to the aviation photographic history of the Northwest during the rapid growth of aviation before and during WW II.
Ed was known to say that through the course of life he had a hand in many different things which did not seem related and yet as he got older all of these skills and information would blend together into unique abilities which he would use in his business activities.
Ed will be remembered for his love of aviation, photography, art, and the many trips his family took in the Mooney all over the western U.S., Canada and Mexico.
He is predeceased by his parents, his sister Betty and is survived by brother Harold. He is also predeceased by his first wife Virginia, mother of Byron, and Peg, mother of Ed and Steven Johnston and his third wife Bonnie and daughter Teresa. He is also survived by his sons Byron, Ed, Steve, and grandchildren Caitlin, Kevin, Sean and Bridget, children of Ed, Jr., as well as Brandi Jo, Janell Marie and Byron James Jr., children of Byron.
Ed was a wonderful person. I enjoyed the stories he shared of his life. He was a kind person and I enjoyed working with him.
Ed was a truly remarkable person and a great father-in-law. His love of aviation, art, and photography were ample proof of his creativity and love of adventure. He traveled with his family in their Mooney all over the West and instilled a thirst for adventure in everyone who knew him. He was a man ahead of his time and was the leader in creating companies and concepts that were new for his generation. His creative ideas rubbed off on all who met him and we are much better people for having known him.
He was fun, creative, adventurous and an excellent role model for those who follow him.
God rest!
We hadn’t heard from Ed in a few years and only recently learned of his passing. He was incredibly intelligent, curious and capable in the development of his soil and revegetation tackifiers!! We worked with him for over 20 years. His presence is seriously missed!! – mhw