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In memory of

Frank L Johnson

Tacoma, WA

1926 - November 30, 2021

1926 - Nov 30, 2021

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TACOMA, WA – Frank Lawrence Johnson, age 95, was born in Portland, OR, in 1926 and passed away with his family at his side November 30, 2021. Frank graduated from Roosevelt High School in 1945 and was drafted in the United States Army shortly thereafter.
In 1952 while working in Eugene, OR a South Dakota woman and her friend decided to treat themselves to a new pair of shoes. The shoe salesman, Frank’s brother Vern, was pushing a set of high heels. Shirley, being 5’9 ½” said “if you can find me a date with a tall enough man I will buy them.” To which her future brother-in-law replied “my brother is 6’4” and single.” Frank married Shirley Johnson in 1953 in Eugene, OR. They had four children, Bruce, Jeffrey, Lisa, and David. Their first son was born in Roseburg, OR. The family of three moved to Oakland, CA where they had their second son and, later, their daughter. Their last son was born in Kailua, HI. Living in Waikiki when they first moved to Hawaii in 1960 the family walked to the beach almost every day. The Johnson’s moved to Kailua, HI in 1963. Packing up the family to spend the day at the beach was a real treat the entire family cherished. Frank loved golfing, hiking, and painting. He became a more active painter in his later years. His first attempt was of Hurricane Andrew for Jeffrey since he is a meteorologist; the second was for Bruce, a mountain lion photographed in Fallbrook, CA; the third painting was of the Mokolua Islands off of Lanikai Beach, HI for Lisa; and the last one of a snow bound cabin for David. Another painting is of a scene that he saw while flying to Maui in the late 1980’s. It was a memorable sight with shafts of light hitting the folds of canyons in the Kapalua area of Maui. Frank’s most recent paintings include a view of St Helen’s crater from January 2007, painting of a green flash at sunset in Finland, his rendition of End of the Trail of Tears—Native American Indian on horseback. Frank’s last painting was of a pink camellia flower.
Early Years. Berry picking at his neighbor’s berry patch from age 12-14 for one cent a box. A good day would bring in $0.20! Picking Green Beans at the Wilson Farm on Cornfoot Road, about a four-mile bike ride to the farm-after getting up at 4:00 am. A good day would bring in $1.25. There were times that after picking beans he would deliver newspapers. Frank’s first newspaper route had about 60 customers and his profit was $15 a month after buying the newspapers from The Oregon Journal. The newspaper stopped publishing in the late 1950’s. His first route was the longest in the paper station, a total of 13 miles from the time he left home until he returned.
High School Years. Frank was lucky to have had a job as a janitor at his high school for three years where he would pick up paper littered around campus and sweep under the desks for 6 rooms. It was a 4-hour job, 5 days a week. On several occasions he would take the bus to the school where his dad was a janitor and help him scrub the hallways of that school. During Frank’s senior year, after school, he took the bus to work at the American Can Company and worked for 4 hours. The bus ride was 45 minutes to work, plus the 4 hours work, plus another hour bus ride home brought him home at around 8:30 pm—a long day. During his senior year, he made a linoleum block print of Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln. Both prints were published in the Jefferson High School newspaper. In Frank’s senior year, he ran in two Cross-Country track meets in the fall of 1944. He also ran in one track meet in the spring of 1945 at Roosevelt HS. His school won each meet.
Army Life. Frank was drafted into the Army on August 27, 1945, less than two weeks after VJ Day (Victory over Japan). His Basic Training was at Fort Bliss Texas, near El Paso. Frank’s military occupational specialty (MOS) was Radar Operator. He was the only student in his class to track the target through window (aluminum foil chaff was used to disrupt detection of targets). After Basic Training, he came home for Christmas and then reported to Fort Ord, California. Next stop was Fort Lawton, near Seattle Washington, for about a month. Frank then was shipped to Alaska where he served as a draftsman for the G-3 and G-4 Department under the Adjutant General’s Office. The highlight of the Alaskan experience was when he and two other guys went on a hike armed with a bow & arrow and an M1 carbine. They found a trail in a grass meadow that was trampled down approximately 3 feet wide. It was from a bear! Lucky that they didn’t engage him/her.
Hiking. Frank’s first hike took place in about 1947. His good friend Victor and his friend Dan started out from Eagle Creek Park on the Columbia River. Their goal was to hike to Timberline Lodge located at the base of Mt Hood (a 51-mile hike). After one night on the trail Victor and Dan decided to return to Portland. The men had seen a number of people on the trail, so Frank decided to proceed on his own for the rest of the way. He spent two additional nights on the trail and arrived at Timberline Lodge around noon on the fourth day. Frank then hitched hiked a ride back to Portland. The first hike into Haleakala (Maui, Hawaii) was with a group in 1994. They hiked from the observatory to Paliku Cabin, a distance of almost 10 miles, spent the night at the cabin, and returned to a point several miles below the observatory. The second hike into Haleakala Crater in 1996 took them to the Paliku Cabin where they spent the night and hiked down near the Seven Pools, spent the night in tents, and flew out of Hana Airport. It was a tough hike! His last big hike was on Kauai where they hiked the 11 mile Na Pali trail. They spent one night on the trail before reaching their destination. There were many dangerous parts on the trail where the trail was sloping toward the ocean (several thousand feet below) and loose sand and pebbles made footing uneasy. Frank had to take a Zodiac back to Hanalei because his feet were in such pain.
Going to college, Oregon State 1946. On a hot day in August, Frank drove his ‘36 Ford coupe to Corvallis. As a freshman, Frank ran with the track team. They had one track meet with the University of Oregon. He ran in the mile-run and the team won the meet. After a year at OSC, Frank decided that he should transfer to the U of O to study Landscape Architecture. In 1950, he joined the Delta Upsilon Fraternity. In the fall of 1949, he ran in a cross-country meet with Oregon State in Portland on the University of Portland’s campus—they won. In the spring of 1951, Frank ran in duel track meet with Oregon State on Hayward Field in Eugene. His run time was approximately 4:35. Frank also worked for the American Can Company for several summers while at school. He also worked at the Coca Cola Bottling Plant in Eugene and a landscape contractor’s firm where they planted shrubs, lawns, and did general maintenance of properties. He graduated in April of 1955. He was the only one in his family to graduate from college.
Frank’s first job after college graduation was with the Douglas County Planning Commission in Roseburg, Oregon. He was part of the first technical staff hired for the Planning Department. They prepared a comprehensive map of Douglas County and an economic base study for the County in 1955. They also eliminated all duplicate street names in the suburbs of Roseburg and established a house numbering system for the area. Bruce was born in Mercy Hospital Roseburg, February 1956.
Frank worked for David Thompson in 1957 and 1958, Landscape Architect in Portland, Oregon where he designed the landscape plans for two high schools, Madison and Reynolds. Frank also had worked at the Portland Zoo where he supervised a bulldozer operator on the placement of stone for the deer pens.
From 1958 to 1960 Frank worked for F H Mick, Landscape Architect in Oakland California. The company had great clients: Chairman of the Board for Kaiser Industries, CEO for Kaiser Hospital, Stephen Bechtel of Bechtel Engineering, and the Vice President of Standard Oil. Frank performed all the office work, billing, payroll, and drawing plans. It was a very boring job so he wrote to a classmate who had an office in Vancouver BC and Phoenix, Arizona to see if he needed help. His friend responded and offered him a job in Honolulu, HI. Jeff was born June 1958, Oakland, California. Lisa was born October 1960, also in Oakland.
Frank worked with Desmond Muirhead & Associates in 1960 and 1961. Desmond had a contract with Kaiser in the planning of Hawaii Kai. They designed subdivisions in Kala Kei Valley, on Lunalilo Home Road, and prepared a plan for a golf course. A memorable highlight of this job was sitting in a meeting with Henry Kaiser where his men would bring him his dinner. He would eat while the meeting continued.
From 1962 to 1964 Frank was hired as a planning consultant to the City of Honolulu to prepare a Development Plan for the Waikiki and Diamond Head Area. He presented past studies of Waikiki, made detailed maps of existing structures in the area, completed traffic studies of the area, and a photographic study of Diamond Head. The results were presented to the Mayor of Honolulu by the committee. David was born August 1963.
In 1964 Frank was hired by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) and worked there until 1995. 1964 to 1968 was an exciting time. Frank became involved in designing and redesigning subdivisions throughout Hawaii and Guam. In one case, he managed to save the developer $500,000 in street costs and gave him more lots. He also got involved in site planning for a number of multifamily projects to improve circulation and efficiency of the property. HUD took over FHA in 1968. This brought in all the social programs for the homeless. In his last five years of duty, he had the lead responsibility of running the homeless programs. Frank put on workshops for non-profit organizations that were competing for funds to operate group homes for the homeless. In June 1995, he presented a $1.8 million check to the then mayor of Maui County—Linda Lingle later became the governor of Hawaii. In 1968 Frank was elected to serve as president of the Hawaii Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects. In 1970 he became the Chairman of the Board of ICED Hawaii. ICED is an acronym for the Inter-professional Commission on Environmental Design and was composed of the presidents of various professional societies. Molten Lava Hazards was one of the most exciting projects that Frank was involved with to establish criteria for HUD participation in mortgage insurance programs or funding of projects using Community Development Block Funds. One day they flew in a Department of Interior’s helicopter and flew over the vent known as Pu’u. Two helicopter rides in two days was a memorable highlight of his experience with HUD.
In October 1965, Frank purchased a 1961 Triumph TR3 roadster as a second car and owned it till 2018. On RARE occasions he allowed his teenage, later adult kids to drive the Triumph...it was his baby. He had owned the car for 53 years!
Frank married Bonnie in 1996 in Ewa Beach on Oahu, moved back to Oregon the following year and they purchased their house on Ryegrass Street. He designed and built the improvements in the back yard; concrete and brick work were done by contractors. The garden was photographed by the Oregonian and was published in the paper on May 30, 2016. Bonnie passed away in August of 2017.
Frank is survived by his sons Bruce Johnson of Hemet, CA and Jeffrey Johnson of Tumwater, WA; daughter Lisa Davidson of Tacoma, WA; and son David Johnson of Elizabeth City, TN; grandchildren Kari and Joshua Davidson of Tacoma, WA; sister-in-law Lois Hinman of Laramie, WY; and a second cousin Karen Stevenson of Oracle, AZ.
Frank was preceded in death by his three brothers, Robert, Herbert, and Vernon, and his parents Edward and Hilda Johnson.
A private graveside service is scheduled for January 2022 at the Tahoma National Cemetery in Kent, WA. In lieu of flowers the family would like to suggest donating to the American Cancer Society. The link is: https://donate3.cancer.org.

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