Owen W. Johnston

Owen and Angela Johnston were united in marriage on September 17, 1988 in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Owen only worked for two different companies in his life; Raytheon and Vermillion Inc. His first 15 years he worked for a Tulsa based Raytheon Electronics company called Seiscor Technologies. He loved working for Seiscor and would have retired from there if Raytheon did not sell the company. He had a few positions at Seiscor but his favorite was Program Management. The last program he was involved in had a lot of corporate oversight and allowed Owen to interface with many of Raytheon’s VP’s; this helped his career in transferring to another Raytheon company after Seiscor moved to Herndon, Virginia. He spent 5 years at Raytheon Aircraft in Wichita during his tenure. His first job was Quality Manager over the wire harness department and after a few years was promoted to Group Manager with several departments working under his guidance. After 9/11 the aircraft industry was hit pretty hard with layoffs and outsourcing operations. This made Raytheon Corporate rethink owning an aircraft company. A special team was created at Raytheon Aircraft to evaluate every department for profitability to sell off or outsource areas that did not fit the new business model. Owen was selected to be a part of this team and really enjoyed the people he worked with and learning new functions of the business. As the project was wrapping up, a new opportunity presented itself with another company, Vermillion Inc. Owen worked for Vermillion Inc. for over 11 years, where he was promoted to president of the company in 2012. Due to the progression of his cancer, he had to step down in 2016. There were many challenges working for Vermillion Inc. but he enjoyed the opportunity of reshaping the company and being a part of the company's most profitable years.

Owen's passion for baseball was initiated by his mother, JoBeth. The family would make visits back to New Jersey where he began following the New York Mets organization. Owen grew up playing baseball, and as he became a father he hoped his boys, Kyle and Nick, would appreciate the game as much as he did. Coaching youth baseball was inevitable which led to the collegiate level. In 2011, he became one of the original founders of the Kansas Cannons. He impacted many young men and made many friends in the Kansas baseball community. He will forever love this game and the Kansas Cannons organization.

He was preceded in death by his parents. Survivors include his loving wife; Angela Johnston, children; Kyle Johnston (Taylor Kruse) and Nicholas Johnston (Erin Richardson), brother; Frank Johnston (Kristin), children; Alyssa Dudek and Anna Dudek, mother and father-in-law, James and Marilyn Long, brother-in-law; Jeff Long, aunt; Linda Johnston, dog; Jaxson.

Celebration of life services will be 2:00 p.m. on Monday July 8, 2019 at Lakeview Funeral Home, 12100 E. 13th St. N., Wichita. In lieu of flowers, if friends desire, an account at Commerce Bank has been set up under the name of Angela Johnston to help the family with medical bills. The day of service a donation box will be present at Lakeview Funeral Home. Checks are to be made out to Angela Johnston with reference to the Owen Johnston Medical Bill Fund.