Ronald Eugene Johnson

Ron was born in Greenwood, South Carolina to John Crawford Johnson and Ruby Allen Johnson. He had two brothers David Johnson (Deceased) (Patsy) of Greenwood and Ray (Lesa) of Columbia. After high school, he attended Marietta-Cobb Area Vocational Technical School in Marietta, Georgia and received an associate's degree in engineering.

His first job was at the Greenville airport with Mylartronics where he worked on small airplane engines. He really loved that and talked about it to the day he passed. As much as he loved it, the pay was not great, so he had to move on to better opportunities. He then accepted an engineering position with NCR in Columbia where he worked for many years as a technician for their cash register products as well as many others.

In 1982 he met Margot at a Christian Singles Fellowship event and something really clicked. Margot had a four-year-old son (Alex) and Ron stepped into instant fatherhood. Not long after they started dating, NCR had a big layoff and Ron was one of the ones to be let go. Ron quickly moved on to Helena Laboratories out of Beaumont, Texas where he had to travel for three-month training as a medical laboratory testing equipment technician. This meant daily phone calls between Ron and Margot. They were married three months later.

After a decade with Helena Labs and fathering two more sons, Kerry and Kirk, he began to feel the urge to exercise his entrepreneurial spirit. In 1995 he started his own company called National Support Center. They offered 24-hour technical support hotline services for smaller dial-up internet providers and hotels for their guests trying to get connected. This business plan worked very well and continued to thrive for over 25 years. NSC employed as many as 100 USC students at its peak.

His work was always very important to him but his family always came first. He is survived by his wife Margot and three children Alexa MacMurray (Angela) of Fredericksburg VA; Kerry Johnson (Jon) of Cayce, SC and grandson Kaiden; and Kirk Johnson (Krjzza) of Clermont Fl., as well as many nephews and nieces.

He was a member of Ashland United Methodist Church for over 40 years; a former member of the Shepherds Center of St, Andrews; a part-time coach of the Irmo High School Robotics Club; and a science-fiction buff (Star-Trek). Ron loved his orange cat (Ginger) and had many lengthy conversations with him.

A memorial service will be held at 1:00 pm Friday, June 27, 2025 at Ashland UMC, with visitation following at the church.