Francis Johnson, Jr. passed away in his home in Houston on May 10. Fran was a beloved member of the Bay Area Unitarian Universalist Church and he will be truly missed.

Fran was born May 8, 1934 and grew up in West Palm Beach, Florida. His parents, Francis Johnson Sr. and Ebba Johnson, sent him to high school at a Seventh Day Adventist boarding school in a suburb of Chicago. After graduating, Fran continued his education at Palm Beach Junior College. Between semesters and evenings he worked as a janitor and errand boy for Remington Rand, an early manufacturer of business machines and computers.

In 1955 Fran moved to Gainesville to start his junior year at the University of Florida. Between his junior and senior year he worked as a technician at the Bureau of Standards in Washington, DC. Upon graduating from the U of F in 1957 Fran began work for General Electric near Cincinnati in their Aircraft Nuclear Propulsion department.

The ANP project was cancelled in 1961, leading Fran to a job with NASA, first in Hampton, VA, and then later to Houston. Fran worked in trajectory analysis during Apollo, where he calculated trajectories to and from the moon. During this time, Fran received his Masters degree in Physics from the University of Houston. This led him to change jobs from trajectory analysis to one in earth science and remote sensing. Fran took early retirement from NASA in 1985.

Fran was a treasured member of the Bay Area Unitarian Universalist Church Choir and a dedicated volunteer who attended church almost every Sunday. You could always count on him to show up to count the offering money after each service, change the message on the church sign, and make the copies of the Order of Worship on Saturday mornings. In addition to growing his own prized tomatoes, he loved to work in the BAUUC Community Garden. He could often be seen picking up trash as he walked along Beacon Street. Fran had no living relatives and so the church was his family.

Fran was a gentle spirit with a brilliant mind. Over the past year, he had been isolated in his home and a number of church members took it upon themselves to visit him regularly and offer their support as his health declined.

A Memorial Service for Fran Johnson will be held on Saturday May 29 starting at 10:00am. The service will be led by Rev. Bruce Beisner and will take place outdoors in the garden area beside the back parking lot of the church building.