Roger William Johnson
May 31, 1943 – April 10, 2020
Roger died in Mount Vernon after suffering a heart attack on April 10, 2020. He was born on May 31, 1943 in Tacoma, Washington where he grew up graduating from Wilson High School in 1961. He then attended the University of Washington, joined Alpha Sigma Phi fraternity and graduated in December 1965 with a Bachelor’s of Business Administration-Accounting. In February 1966 he married Barbara Jeanne Gorham whom he met on a bus to the Rose Bowl chartered by his fraternity Alpha Sigma Phi and her sorority. With Barbara he raised two great children, Steven (Jennifer) and Michelle (Robert Gross). He is survived by Barbara, his wife of over 54 years, his sister Charlene (Wesley Hayward) and his two adult children as well as two grandchildren Jeffrey and Lexie Johnson. Barbara and Roger raised their children in Issaquah, Washington and retired to Skagit County where they enjoyed bird watching and other many activities. He was active in local Model Railroad groups and held several offices in the Evergreen Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in Marysville, Washington.
Roger went to work at Bank of America (formerly Seattle-First National Bank immediately after graduation, working there for slightly over 35 years under several different management teams due to bank mergers. While working at Seafirst he attended and taught several American of Institute of Banking classes and attended and graduated from Pacific Coast Banking School. Following his retirement from Bank of America he worked at the commercial banking division of Washington Mutual Bank until its implosion in 2006. He then tried but flunked real retirement and returned to work part time at Skagit State Bank until his 70th birthday May 31, 2013 when he retired again, this time successfully, spending more time building his medium sized HO scale model railroad, doing some traveling with trips to Panama and two trips to Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland and England. One of the European trips also included a couple of days in Normandy, France to sate (partially) Roger’s thirst for D-Day history.
Family and friends are encouraged to share memories and condolences at www.whidbeymemorial.com.
Services will be held at a later date. Donations in his name may be to the Skagit Audubon Society, the Celtic Arts Foundation or the Skagit Land Trust.