Kent E. Johnson

Kent was born and raised in Davenport, Iowa. He would go on to obtain a Bachelor's degree from Augustana College in nearby Rock Island. While there he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa and more importantly met his wife Miriam. Later he completed his Master's and PHD from Wisconsin in Geology before heading west to work with Chevron in various locations in California.

In 1974 he was transferred to The Hague, Netherlands to manage their exploration office. He was transferred back to San Francisco and left the company in 1981 to go to Houston, where he became President for Quintana Petroleum. In 1989, he moved to Dallas to work for PG&E Resources. It was sold to Ensearch, and Kent left there a year later for Wiser to develop an exploration program.

He retired from Wiser but was asked by a good friend to help a small company prepare for sale. It was sold in 2001 and he fully retired at that point. In his semi-retirement years, Miriam and Kent decided to move to San Antonio in 1999 to be closer to family.

As he has often said his greatest achievements were seeing his two sons grow up, become successful, and even more importantly, marry well. His oldest son Scott and his family reside in the San Francisco area. Scott is married to Bea and has two sons, Max and Leo. Mark and his family reside in San Antonio and have three sons, Ben, Sam and Will.

In addition to his love of family, he was proud to be involved with volunteer teaching. He taught English as a Second Language ESL starting soon after his retirement. He later began teaching at NISD in the GED program - both ESL and math. He later dropped ESL and taught math only because he enjoyed it so. In 2006, the Texas Association for Literacy & Adult Education awarded him as the Texas Volunteer of the Year. He continued to teach as long as possible, even when battling his cancer. His greatest concern was that three of the GED students he taught go on to get their college degrees.

He had a real love of science and geology; he loved reading, played a lot of tennis, loved good food and wine, and especially enjoyed the grandsons and family he helped create.

In more recent years, his faith continued to grow stronger and he came to the conclusion that he would soon see God face to face. He was preceded in death by his parents, Robert Johnson and Minnie Haak Johnson.

He is survived by his beloved wife of 48 years, Miriam Johnson; sons, Scott Johnson and wife Beatrice, and Mark Johnson and wife Dawn; brothers, Don Kretsch and wife Barb, and Ferd Kretsch and wife Carol; family friend, Greg Payne and wife Diane; brothers-in-law, Duane Johnson and wife Marian, and Melvin Grefe; grandsons, Ben, Max, Sam, Leo, and Will Johnson; and numerous nieces and nephews.

In lieu of flowers, it was his wish that donations be made to Pancreatic Cancer Action Network at www.pancan.org.