Deceased October 21, 1982
View alumni profile (log in required)
In Memory
Though Steve Johnson was born in Holyoke, Mass., his family lived on a poultry farm in Pelham as he was growing up and Steve attended local schools, graduating from Amherst Regional High School. At the College he earned his B.A. in geology and was a member of Delta Upsilon. He remained in the Amherst area a year after college to take graduate geology courses at the University of Massachusetts.
Chris Grose, who went to grades 8 and 9 in Amherst, remembers Steve as a good friend in those years: “We played baseball on a local team; Steve had a precocious curveball at that point. He was gifted in science, though I think his fascination with geology came on at Amherst, where he may well have written the same History of Connecticut Valley that I remember enjoying in Prof. Brophy's inspiring class.”
Steve entered the Air Force in 1962. He earned a commission at the Air Force Officer Training School and remained on active duty until 1966. His duties in the service were primarily in the area of classified information and security.
On returning to civilian life, Steve moved to New York, living initially in Greenwich Village. He pursued a career in data processing and became a programmer and systems analyst for Great American Insurance. Steve later moved to New Jersey but continued to work in New York as Director of Management Information for the International Division of CBS Records. The position required considerable travel and Steve was responsible for implementing computer systems at European sites, notably in Belgium and the Netherlands. Steve’s technical prowess was well-respected, and his colleagues knew him to be a hard-working, dedicated professional with an excellent sense of humor.
He was living in Kingston, New Jersey, with his wife Alice and daughters, Kim and Kelly, when, while on a business trip to Miami, he suffered an unexpected and fatal heart attack on October 21, 1982. His sharp wit and amicability are remembered by all who knew him.