Kenneth Wilfred Johnson

Ken passed away from heart failure on August 9th at age 83 in Phoenix, where he lived. He was born on December 31, 1938 in Billings, MT, to Arnold Wilfred Johnson and Dolores Josephine (Sherman) Johnson. From 1941 through his junior year of high school, Ken lived in Alliance, Nebraska, in the Sandhills. He participated in Boy Scouts, cared for the family vegetable garden, and fulfilled two newspaper routes. In Ken’s senior year, his family moved to Casper, Wyoming, where Ken’s father became manager of the Burlington Railroad communication/relay office in Casper. Ken was overjoyed to be near the mountains.

In Ken’s first year at Casper Jr. College, a guidance counselor introduced Ken to mountain climbing. Ken climbed Devils Tower butte (which was the first US National Monument, established 1906) in the Black Hills of Wyoming nine times. Devils Tower is one of the finest “crack climbing” areas in North America. He became a climbing guide there and in the Teton Mountain Range off and on for the next few years. After a year of college, Ken worked for Burlington Railroad in Casper, then enlisted in the army for airborne training at age twenty, rising to rank of Second Lieutenant.

Returning to Casper College in 1961, later to University of Colorado at Boulder and Southern Illinois University, Ken majored in political science and French. With aid from the GI Bill, Ken stayed for graduate school in International Relations and International Economics, earning a Master’s degree from Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville, where his older sister Sandra lived.

During college, he continued to work at ski slopes. At Winter Park Resort in Colorado, Ken invented a device to rescue skiers from chairlifts that had stopped from breakdowns. At the same resort, he met his future wife, Jeanne Lobelle, who was from New Hampshire. Married in April 2022 at Winter Park, Ken adopted her son Terry Scott and soon had a daughter, Michelle Lynn, born 1965.

Master’s degree in hand, Ken became an officer trainee in the International Department of Bank of America in San Francisco, remaining as an officer at the bank for two years. In 1969, Ken flew to Thailand as the Assistant Manager/Loans of the branch in Bangkok, the capital city, where his family enjoyed learning Thai language, culture, food, and religion, Buddhism. Later, Ken became Country Bank Manager for Malaysia, based in Kuala Lumpur. In both places, his family enjoyed squash, golf, and amazing beaches. Cooks, servants, and drivers provided for the family.

Ken joined the Continental Bank in Chicago, which soon after assigned him to be President/Director of a multinational investment bank in Jakarta, Indonesia. With Japanese, French, and Indonesian partners, it opened the first stock market in Jakarta. Continental Bank asked Ken to open a new branch in Seoul, South Korea as a Vice President. He later set up a regional office in Singapore with a region covering New Zealand, Australia, the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, and Burma. An avid reader and student of cultures, he was a fine representative abroad for the United States.

Following a divorce, Ken sailed and did scuba diving, including the Great Barrier Reef of Australia. On returning to the States, Ken opened an office of Edward Jones Investments in Sedona, Arizona, where he lived for eighteen years, while also helping his elderly parents in Phoenix.

Ken was preceded in death by his parents and two children, Terry in 2011 and Michelle in 2009. Terry worked for Seattle (Washington) Public Water Utility. During the Iraq War (war of 2003-2011), he worked for the Army Reserves as motor pool Master Sergeant Supervisor for a logistical support battalion. Terry and Ken once climbed the highest mountain on the island of Borneo, Mt. Kinabalu. Ken’s daughter Michelle had a passion for cooking. Michelle and Ken became accredited as Divemasters and did many dives in Malaysia.

He is survived by his sister Sandra May Johnson, daughter-in-law Claudelle Johnson, two nieces and a nephew, and his friend of almost eighty years, Jack Rader.

Ken was a member of the National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution. Burial at National Memorial Cemetery of Arizona.

- Submitted by Nancy Lee Moran, Ken’s niece