Marty Johnson

Marty Johnson was the son of Art and Doris Johnson, and the eldest of four brothers. He was born in Alberta on Oct 1, 1953, and died at home in Washington, Feb 22, 2022, at 68 years old. Marty was married to Anita for 50 years. They had 2 sons, Nathan and Matthew, and five grandchildren: Daisy is 26, Cedar is 25, Ciana is 12, Bella is 5 and Lilac is 3.

I met Marty in 1969 in Orange, California. He was visiting a friend whose family had relocated from Washington. The friend, Garry, happened to be my best friend’s boyfriend. We were married on Dec 31, 1971. I know, we were very young.

I had the pleasure of spending 50 plus wonderful years with my husband and best friend. We were a team, and whatever I couldn’t do or remember, Marty probably could.

Marty spent 30 years at Boeing as a tooling engineer. He retired in 2008.

He had a ton of interests and hobbies throughout his years. He loved being active and spending time outside in the Pacific Northwest. As a family, we spent many hours on the water together. We water skied, sailed, kayaked and canoed. The extended Johnson family did the Bowron Lake circuit in 1980, and Marty repeated it by himself on his 40th birthday. When on land, we were always camping: going on family backcountry trips, car camping, and more recently, with our RV.

Marty was athletic and loved physical activity. As a young father, he played in an Ultimate Frisbee league. In the early 80s, he was the Washington state freestyle Frisbee champion. He cycled his whole life, but got more serious in the late 70’s. At first, it was all road riding, but he jumped on to mountain biking in its early days, and it became his favorite. He rode almost every day on the many trails near our Anacortes home.

Marty was also a great thinker and reader. He played chess with amateurs and masters around the world, and he loved great literature. He read and re-read the old classics such as Joseph Campbell, The Wisdom of Laotse, Proust, Dostoyevsky and possibly his favorite, Anna Karenina. He was a smart man, and his brain was always full of facts- no one could beat him at Trivial Pursuit! Marty was also an accomplished acoustic guitarist, choosing to play for a select audience – for me, or for his grandchildren.

Marty considered himself an introvert and avoided social situations. But you would never know it, unless you knew him well. In social situations, he was an engaging conversationalist - and not just about the weather! He was funny, told marvelous stories, and had a plethora of knowledge to share.

Marty seemed in good spirits and on the outside appeared upbeat about overcoming his health challenges. He had a tough year medically. He had various injuries and chronic pains that made life challenging, especially for someone so used to being active and fit. He had a strong reaction to a medication for kidney stones that caused severe panic attacks. This led to months of ups and downs, and changing and adding medications to alleviate symptoms. He suffered several side effects, including loss of appetite, loss of balance, but mostly overwhelming severe panic attacks. He told me sometimes that all he could do was lie in bed and try to just hold on. Marty ended his life on Feb 22, 2022. I was out of town spending the night with our son’s family. It was a total shock for all of us.

His wife
Anita Johnson