James Howard Johnston, Jr.

James Howard Johnston was born in New Haven, Connecticut, on Sept. 8, 1936, to his parents, James H. Johnston and Marie Elizabeth Johnston. He had one sibling, his sister Marie.

He played baseball in his hometown of Orange, Connecticut, and was a very good athlete. He liked the Green Bay Packers even into his later years.

He served our country first in the National Guard in 1957 and then in the United States Air Force in 1959.

He and Marilyn met in 1963 and were married a year later.

He started his career in electrical engineering in the service.

In 1973 he moved his family from the East Coast, Long Island, N.Y., to the West Coast, in the Seattle area. He worked as a subcontractor to Boeing for nine years and then went to work for Boeing until 2002.

In 1993, he became a Born Again Christian and accepted the call to evangelize. He was on the evangelism team at Overlake Christian Church and when he retired to Lewis County he and his wife had a prison ministry at Green Hill School and detention centers throughout the state.

He received many awards from Boeing for being an outstanding employee. He worked on interfacing OBTM + M hardware and its electrical interfaces to the displays and IFF and AOCP/SMCP software, resolving the many issues in the development and refinements for the AWACS E-3 A airplane.

He leaves behind his loving wife of 58 years, Marilyn; stepson, Robert J. Carroll (girlfriend Kelly Hayes); daughters, Christine M. Smullin and Debra A. Johnston; grandchildren, Zachary J. Johnston, Mason Carroll, Shane Smullin and Elisha Smullin; and cousins, Margaret Malone, of New York, N.Y., Barbara Osterhoudt, of Shelton, Connecticut, and Eleanor Hilgart, of Vancouver, Washington, (husband Fred Hilgart).

The family would like to give a special thank you to South Sound Hospice for their expert care. They would also like to thank all their family and friends for the love and support. A celebration of life will be held in October.

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