Richard Tolley Johnson

Richard Tolley Johnson was born July 1, 1942, in Oklahoma City, to Vivian Louise Tolley and Warren Donald “Don” Johnson. Raised also by his grandmother, Elizabeth (Butcher) Tolley, Dick attended Whittier Elementary, Roosevelt Junior High, and Classen High School. He played baseball, was involved in Boy Scouts, and developed an interest in photography and music. During his senior year in high school, he was drum major, treasurer of the Pep Club, and President of the local Junior Red Cross. With the Red Cross, he was invited to meet President Eisenhower and to tour Europe. Dick attended Oklahoma State University on a clarinet scholarship, joined the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity, and earned a BS in Physics and then an MBA.

Dick married Gloria Kay Hallmark, a classmate from both high school and college, at All Souls Episcopal Church in Oklahoma City, on May 29, 1965. They moved to Baytown, TX, where he joined Humble Oil, which then became Exxon, where he worked for the rest of his career. He completed two years of military service, one year at Fort Bliss, TX, and one in Korea, with Christmas spent in Hawaii and June in Japan with Gloria. In 1968, he returned to Baytown to build their first home and start a family, with the birth of Eric and Janet three years later. Dick played clarinet in the Baytown Community Orchestra, earned his pilot’s license, and bought a 4-seater Cessna airplane.

In 1979, Dick was transferred to Summit, NJ, where they finished raising their children, sending them both off to Duke University. In 1992, he was transferred back to the Houston area, and Dick and Gloria built their third home in The Woodlands. Dick finished his career as a senior architectural planner in computer applications.

Dick and Gloria have belonged to Trinity Episcopal Church since 1992. With a lifetime of lay service, Dick took over scheduling lay readers and acolytes, and in 2002, volunteered to be trained in the inaugural cohort of vergers. He then trained a series of vergers, helping to reintroduce this tradition of assistants to the clergy—whose role was to marshal processions--and he was the last of this cohort at Trinity. He also became a Master Gardener at the Texas A&M extension in Conroe. He brought his technical and project management skills to both roles, with precise and comprehensive schematics and manuals.

After his retirement in 2001, Gloria got Dick to embrace traveling for fun. They toured parts of Russia and Ukraine; Norway, Sweden, Finland; the Baltics; Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic; Spain, Portugal, the United Kingdom, France, and Italy, as well as much of the United States, including a 50th anniversary tour of Alaska with their children and grandchildren.

Dick is survived by his wife Gloria; son Eric Wayne and wife Lisa Carol Johnson, and grandsons Benjamin Tyler and Alexander Kyle Johnson of Glastonbury, CT; and daughter Janet Elise Johnson and grandson Maxwell Riley Johnson-Summers of Brooklyn, NY. He also is survived by his stepmother Judy Luken Johnson; half-siblings Ross Anthony Johnson, Patricia Johnson, and Linda Brown.

In lieu of flowers, please contribute to Trinity Episcopal Church at 3901 S. Panther Creek Dr., The Woodlands, TX 77381, in Dick Johnson’s name.

Visitation will be on Tuesday, May 10, from 5:00-8:00pm at Forest Park The Woodlands Funeral Home, 18000 I-45, The Woodlands, Texas. Funeral Services will be at Trinity Episcopal Church, 3901 S Panther Creek Dr, The Woodlands, Texas on Wednesday, May 11 at 1pm and streamed on www.facebook.com/TrinityEpiscopalChurch. Reception follows at the church hall.

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.forestparkthewoodlands.com for the Johnson family.