Alan Wayne Johnson

How does a Kansas farm boy come to love being on the water so much? Alan Wayne Johnson was born in Centralia, Kansas to Margaret (Farrar) Johnson and Verner Johnson on July 23, 1950. He died of kidney failure August 12, 2025 after a short stay at Heartwood House in Northcrest Community in Ames, Iowa.

Alan grew up on the family farm in Kansas, graduated from Frankfort High School and was a state officer in FFA. He got his engineering degree from Kansas State University. The next day he began his work at Danfoss in Ames where he worked for 30 years, except for two years when he went back to Kansas to farm. While at Danfoss, Alan secured over a dozen patents for his designs.

Alan developed an interest in sailing. He had a sailboat on Saylorville Lake and chartered boats on Lake Superior. He learned to windsurf and liked to canoe and kayak. Every summer, he spent a week roughing it in the Boundary Waters Wilderness Canoe Area.

Alan married Ida (Cleaveland) Draper in 1991 and they spent years enjoying water sports, camping and traveling the world together.

He was a member of the Ames Area Amateur Astronomers, Ames Woodworking Club, Audubon and rang handbells at church. He volunteered to cut invasive species, helped with river clean up and volunteered at Whiterock Conservancy with their biannual prairie burns. If it was outdoors and active, Alan was interested. He would go skiing in Colorado and was one of the early ones in Ames to get hooked on pickleball.

He is survived by his wife, Ida and his wonderful nieces and nephews in Kansas. He is preceded in death by his mother, father, sisters Barbara Klamm and Rose Smith, and brother Daryl.

There will be a private family service. Online condolences can be sent to Stevens Memorial Chapel. In keeping with Alan’s quiet presence, you might honor him by going on a walk to commune with nature and suggests memorial contributions might be directed to Food at First in Ames or Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation.