Blaine W Johnson, Jr.

In the early morning hours of December 15, 2024, Blaine W. Johnson Jr. peacefully left this world after enduring one of the loneliest years of his life.

According to his own reckoning, Blaine was born “at a very young age” to Blaine Walker and Wanda Whatcott Johnson. He was in fact born July 3, 1933, in Orem, Utah on his Grandfather Johnson’s birthday. He was his parents’ second child and oldest son.

Blaine benefited from a happy rural childhood. For a time, his family lived in a house that his father and grandfather built on his grandfather’s farm. When he was 6 years old, he learned to milk cows setting up his lifelong aversion to drinking milk. He jumped off the roof with his homemade dishtowel parachute-twice. (After the first time, he said he was sure he hadn’t jumped high enough for his chute to open.)

When Blaine was 8 years old his family moved to Valier, Montana where his father farmed for two summers. He remembers that he suffered rope burns from playing Tarzan, swinging from a rope secured to the top of the barn. One day he hitched a young kid goat to a large doll buggy to go for a “chariot” ride. The goat jumped over a telephone pole that was lying on the ground. The buggy stopped but Blaine kept going and landed in sand burrs and cinders that kept him picking and crying for hours.

When he was eleven years old, Blaine’s family moved to Alpine, Utah to a “run down, sad place” which his father “proudly called a farm.” His next few years were spent “being driven like a slave” (according to Blaine) and “always laying around doing little or nothing” (according to his dad.) He hunted, got in and out of minor trouble and attended church when he was told to or when he thought it would get him out of working.

Blaine’s mischievous side was always at work. When he was 13 years old his parents purchased a new bike for the entire family for Christmas. Knowing Blaine was a mechanically minded boy, they put it under the tree in the box, unassembled, so the kids could put it together Christmas morning. After his parents were asleep Blaine got out of bed and quietly assembled the bike finishing it just before everyone else woke up on Christmas morning. His reward was his parents’ surprise when they woke up to a fully assembled bike.

One Thanksgiving Day, he saw an opportunity for another prank which started with polishing the dining table. Then after the table was set with a tablecloth and dishes, all ready for dinner, he pulled the tablecloth out from under all the dishes in one smooth move. His mother was not amused. They had to unset the table and reset it before they could eat. But Blaine was quite proud that not so much as a spoon fell to the floor. As Blaine continued to help his dad on their farm he learned a lot. He helped to build the barns, sheds and a milking parlor so they could have a Grade “A” dairy farm. He also learned to weld. When he was 16, he welded a mile and a half of steel pipe for a sprinkling system to irrigate the farm. He acquired a taste for all things automotive and mechanical which eventually led to his chosen vocation.

Blaine graduated from American Fork High School in 1951 with an educational emphasis in “Fun and Games.” Most importantly, he met Jeanette Mecham whom he would later marry.

After high school, Blaine attended Utah Vocational School to become a certified welder. But in 1953 he was drafted into the Army and sent to Alaska for 18 months during the Korean Conflict. His primary job was to work in the motor pool where he had a chance to hone his automotive skills, but he took every opportunity to experience new things. He saw the tallest mountain on the North American continent. He hunted bears, sheep, moose, caribou, deer, and ptarmigan. He fished, camped, skied and on occasion did a little KP.

Once he was discharged from active duty, Blaine married his sweetheart, Jeanette Mecham, on July 22, 1955, in the Manti Temple, then got serious about his education. He started college at BYU but soon transferred to Utah State University, graduating in 1960 with two children and his degree in Automotive Engineering. Blaine excelled at the university. He especially loved math and chemistry. He valued his time at Utah State and seeing the doors his degree opened, he created the Johnson Family Scholarship fund in the College of Agriculture there.

After graduation he went to work for Delco Remy Division of General Motors as a service engineer in Anderson, Indiana. After that he spent two years in Dallas, Texas as a service engineer for the Southeast U.S. The family then returned to Anderson, Indiana where he worked as a Service Manager for Delco Remy. During these years, three more children joined the family.

In 1973 Blaine left Delco Remy and moved his family to Decatur, Georgia to open rebuild centers for Ryder Truck Rental. In 1977, he moved with his family to Homestead, Florida so he could be the Director of Research and Development at Ryder Corporate headquarters in Miami, Florida. He remained with Ryder until retirement, eventually becoming the Director of Maintenance Training. He was nationally recognized as an expert in the transportation industry and received many honors for his achievements. While in Florida, he and Jeanette found the “Fountain of Youth” and added one more child to their family.

Ever since the move to Indiana, Blaine was thrust into a world of service opportunities through The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Over his life he served as a counselor in the Bishopric, a Bishop (twice), a counselor to a Stake President, a Stake President, a counselor to a Temple President, a President of the Orlando Florida Temple and a sealer in the Ogden Utah Temple. But his favorite calling was as a Gospel Doctrine teacher which he was asked to do more than once.

Following retirement Blaine and Jeanette kept moving, living in Orlando, Florida, Ocoee, Florida, and Leesburg, Florida. Blaine summed up his feelings this way: “From 2000 until 2008 we moved six times so please do not ask me to go anyplace anymore.”

Little did he know that he had one more move to make--back home to Utah in 2014 where he and Jeanette settled in North Ogden. Here they found a new home, a new ward family and a new phase of life since they were finally geographically closer to their grandchildren and great grandchildren.

Even though Blaine stayed busy pursuing his engineering career and serving in the church, he always found time for his creative pursuits. He built an organ for Jeanette from a kit. He painted paintings, built guitars and sculpted in walnut and alabaster. He built a classic 1929 Mercedes Gazelle, also from a kit. He grew orchids when he lived in Florida. After breaking his ankle on the Utah ice, he took up knitting hats on a knitting loom to keep from going crazy. Although it’s impossible to know the exact count, he knitted thousands of hats over 9 years. He gave them all away.

Blaine leaves behind his children, Victor M., Jana, Lee Blaine, Julie, Eric David and Jennifer; 22 grandchildren, and 20 great-grandchildren; and his two sisters, LaDeane Cobabe and Lois Sager, 

Blaine lost his beloved wife, Jeanette earlier this year. He is also preceded in death by his parents; two sisters, Julia Beth and Gladys; and his only brother, Lewis. He also lost an infant son.

Graveside services will be held on Saturday, December 21, 2024, at 10 a.m. at the Ben Lomond Cemetery, North Ogden. Friends may visit with family on Saturday from 9 to 9:30 a.m. at Lindquist’s North Ogden Mortuary, 2140 N. Washington Blvd. 

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