November 8, 2024

After living a life full of adventure, making memories, and in service to others, Dr. John Kent Johnson passed away on November 8, 2024.

John began his educational career at Kansas University. A common theme throughout John’s life is that he loved the fullness of life and the camaraderie of close friendships. After taking an expansive combination of classes to figure out where his passions were, he heard about a new field and degree program in Computer Science and Medicine. He soon found his passion and completed his Master’s in Electrical Engineering, followed by his PhD. at the University of Missouri-Columbia. Although his degrees were awarded through the Electrical Engineering program, Dr. Johnson was a computer scientist.

After meeting his wife, Dr. Virginia “Ginny” Harr, in 1971, they dated for 7 years and married in 1978. For several years during his wife’s residency, they resided in Houston, Texas. Dr. Johnson worked at the Johnson Space Center where he achieved his dream job of working on the Space Shuttle. He put together payloads for experiments, and his role was to make sure everything was space-worthy and integrate all of the requirements together.

John held a deep love of nature and travel, and Houston where he learned to scuba. This opened up a whole new world of travel opportunity, where John and Ginny spent many scuba trips to Cozumel, and later all of the islands in the Caribbean that they could. In the summertime, they explored Canada and also had the opportunity to travel to London and France- with the highlight being Monet’s home and gardens, as well as his mammoth paintings in The Musee de l’Orangerie, Paris.

In 1984, Dr. Harr and Dr. Johnson made Chickasha, Oklahoma their home where Dr. Harr practiced medicine at Southern Plains Medical Center. Dr. Johnson quickly became known in the area for being knowledgeable about computers, and that he was willing to teach. He began teaching at USAO and soon discovered that he was a gifted professor. Dr. Johnson found teaching to be energizing and engaging. He was never prouder of a student than when they became fully engaged in what interested them and succeeded. He wanted for every person to reach their full potential. Dr. Johnson was well known for beginning every Introduction to Computer class with a famous memory recall trick of calling out the entire roll call of the class from memory- sometimes even in reverse order!

Weaving together his love of teaching and travel, John once took an independent study class to his beloved Cozumel.  A memorable experience was a scavenger hunt he developed to introduce the students to the island. They had to travel all over the town of San Miguel to collect clues and left with many life lessons and experiences!

His family and friends will remember him for taking them on several trips throughout the years making memories. He was always looking to have fun and was often the ringleader in making sure people weren’t taking life too seriously and missing out on the potential for a moment of joy.

After teaching ended, he ran his own research computer company. He participated in a project for DARPA with self-driving cars.  He was fascinated with computer detection of visual and LIDAR data.  He felt that if a bird could navigate the world with a “bird brain” then there was no need for giant computers and giant computer programs.

What made John so spectacular as a human was he was encouraging to everyone around him, intellectually curious about many subjects, and loved to cook, travel, eat, have fun, study nature, entertain and simply have good conversations with everyone. Entertaining both small groups and big parties was a special skill of John’s. He hosted receptions for Pro Musica as well as a Chocolate Festival around Valentine’s Day, and many other informal events to get friends, colleagues, and students together.

John was infallibly polite to most, but especially to waitstaff, secretaries, and helpers. He saw the value in every human being and dedicated his life to encouraging them and being especially tender toward women in strained circumstances. He was fully supportive of all individuals striving to make their family situations more secure.

It didn’t matter what season you saw John, he was probably wearing his own style of clothing which consisted solely of cargo shorts, tennis shoes from Land’s End, and a colored t-shirt under a colorful short-sleeve button-up collared shirt. His style fits the bill of wanting to be comfortable and putting those around him at ease.

John is survived by his wife, Dr. Virginia Harr, sister Janice Hall and husband Hubey, brother Jerry Johnson and wife Patricia, and a host of nieces and nephews, and will be missed by many former students, friends, and family members.

Funeral service will be held Friday, November 15, 2024, at 10:30 am at the Ferguson Funeral Home Chapel in Chickasha. A viewing will be held on Thursday, November 14, 2024, from 2-7 pm. The family will receive friends from 4-6 pm on the viewing date.  Family and friends are invited to attend both the viewing and funeral services.