Obituaries

Roy Johnson, an ardent outdoorsman of 80 years, died on November 26, 2011, at his home in Montrose, after a valiant battle with cancer.

Roy Edwin was born October 11, 1931, in Dalhart, TX, to Eddie Joseph Johnson and Ethel Melissa Watkins Johnson. Two years later, the family moved to rural Montrose where Roy and his two sisters attended school at Riverside and Uncompahgre Elementary Schools and Montrose High School.

Roy was a member of the first MHS wrestling team to win a state championship. He always gave his coach, Monroe Horton, credit for recognizing his potential as an athlete and a student, and challenging him to pursue excellence. As a high school senior, Western State College recruited Roy with an athletic scholarship that enabled him to continue wrestling and further his education.  The summer between his sophomore and junior year, Roy was short of funds to continue college, but Chancy Mills, his employer in Montrose, loaned him $200 and told him to get back to college. Roy did so, and continued on after receiving his Bachelors in Education, to obtain both his Master’s and Education Specialist. Roy paid back that $200 and became committed himself to helping students achieve their own educational and athletic goals.

While at Western State, Roy met and married Elaine Conner and together they finished their degrees and moved to Nucla as teachers. Over the next 30 years, Roy coached wrestling and taught Industrial Arts, was Elementary School Principal, and held the position of District Superintendent for 18 of those years. He finished his career in education with a final seven years serving as District Superintendent of Schools in Cortez, Colorado. In 1979, he was awarded the year’s Outstanding Superintendent of Colorado’s Rural Schools.

Roy and Elaine raised their three girls in Nucla and the surrounding outdoors. Beverly, Cheryl, Teresa, and the family dog, spent many hours packed in the back of a jeep, exploring the back roads of the Uncompahgre Plateau and surrounding San Juan Mountains. Blackbear Road and Cinnamon, Engineer, and Imogene Passes were familiar jeep trails. If the family was not jeeping, they were hunting. Roy taught Elaine and his girls how to hunt for the big bucks in the West End and elk on North Mountain and the Lone Cone.

Roy and Elaine’s retirement enabled him to pursue his hunting and fishing passion on a grander scale. Arizona offered Javelina, the Colorado eastern slope had Whitetail Deer, and there were four trips to Alaska for Dall Sheep, moose, and salmon.

Roy’s retirement was also about giving back to the outdoors. While in Cortez, he helped start a chapter of the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation. He also helped organize the Four Corners Trail Club for snowmobilers and ATV riders. They worked closely with the Forest Service to establish and maintain trails. After moving back to Montrose in 1998, Roy again helped establish a motorized trail riders club, the Uncompahgre Valley Trail Riders, and continued to be involved with the Forest Service and BLM agencies for preserving trails for motorized use.

Roy rounded out his retirement with many hours of friendships shared on the golf course, volunteering for the DOW, and being a member of the First Presbyterian Church of Montrose.

Roy is survived by his wife and hunting partner of 58 years, Elaine, and their three children: Beverly (Matt) Roth of Olathe; Cheryl (Dan) Squier of Grand Junction, and Teresa (Marty) Wright of Azle, Texas. He has enjoyed sharing the outdoors with all 10 of his grandchildren. He is also survived by one sister, Sharon Kilgore, of Grand Junction.

He was preceded in death by both parents, and one sister, Marie Tornitore Badalato.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made out to the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, in care of Terry Sweet, 3163 ½  B ½ Road, Grand Junction, CO, 81503.

Condolences may also be sent to the family at www.cripppinfuneralhome.com

A Funeral Service in Loving Memory of Roy will be held Thursday, December 1, 2011 at 10:00 am at the First Presbyterian Church on Niagara Rd., in Montrose. Interment will follow the service at Grand View Cemetery, west of Montrose.

Arrangements are under the direction and care of Crippin Funeral Home, 802 E. Main St., Montrose, Co. 81401 (970) 249-2121