Gary Reed Johnston

Gary was born to Devor and Joan Johnston on December 2, 1952 in Plymouth, Indiana. He graduated Plymouth High School with Honors, excelling in high school athletics, including both football and basketball, as well as academically in math and science.

After high school, he was accepted to multiple universities but chose to accept a scholarship from Purdue University. After initially attending Purdue, he felt compelled to serve his country in the midst of the Vietnam War and enlisted in the United States Air Force.

Gary’s first assignment as an enlisted Airman was to manage and maintain the Minuteman Missile Silos (Malmstrom Air Force Base) in Montana. While stationed at Malmstrom, he met the woman he would later build a life with, his beautiful bride Bonnie Booth. Gary and Bonnie would have two sons, Brent and Greg.

After his enlisted career, the Air Force sent Gary back to Purdue to finish the education he started. Gary graduated from Purdue in 1980 with a degree in Electrical Engineering. He would then accept an Officer’s Commission and return to the Air Force.

Gary’s Air Force career is littered with accomplishments. He continued his education while an Officer, attending the Air Force Institute of Technology and earning his Master’s Degree in Electrical Engineering. Gary would continue to excel during his career. He served as a program manager for several Foreign Military Sales efforts, arming our allies in Isreal and South Korea with F-16s and Egypt with F-15s. While stationed at Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, he led the F-16 Falcon Systems Program Office. These accomplishments earned his final military promotion to Major and his final duty station in Tullahoma, TN at Arnold Engineering and Development Center. For his swan song military accomplishment, he led and managed Top Secret wind tunnel testing of some of the Air Force’s most critical systems in development, such as the Stealth F-117 Nighthawk and YF-22 Raptor.

Retiring from the Air Force January 1, 1995, Gary then moved into the private sector but was still focused on applying his knowledge and talent to our nation’s defense. He began his private sector career with a small company that would later become Northop Grumman. He worked on multiple programs, such as the KC-135 and C-17 Globemaster, and became the point man for all related proposal efforts. He finally retired from his civilian duties at the end of 2022.

Through the course of all of Gary’s tremendous professional accomplishments, Gary’s ultimate focus was always on his children and grandchildren as he coached and attended any and everything he could from soccer and cheer to color guard, baseball, football, basketball, softball and rowing. Gary was known as Bumpa and G-Pa to his grandchildren - Lauren Elizabeth Strozier, Emma Rae Johnston, Camden Reed Johnston, Avery Mae Johnston, Allyn Marie Johnston, and Sawyer Jo Johnston - and great-grandchild – John Reed Strozier. Bumpa was omnipresent in everything they did and supported them unconditionally along the way. HE WAS THEIR GREATEST FAN! Gary modeled the characteristics of LOVE, GENEROSITY, and HARD WORK for each of his children and grandchildren to carry with them for the rest of their lives.

His FAMILY is his greatest accomplishment.

He was preceded in death by his parents, 1 Grandson; Matthew James, and 1 brother.

A Memorial Service will be Friday, April 25th, 2025, at McConnell Funeral Home Chapel at 2 p.m., starting outside the funeral home for the military honors and then assemble in the chapel for the service. The family will be receiving visitors at 1. Chad Warden will be officiating.