Thomas Leonard Johnson, beloved father, brother, uncle, former husband, and friend left this mortal realm on April 7, 2023. Tom was born August 16, 1937, in Rockford, Illinois, the second son of Maye and Edward Johnson. Tom and his older brother Richard grew up in the tightknit Swedish American community of East Rockford and enjoyed close ties to numerous extended family members, many of whom emigrated from Sweden in the late 1800’s. Tom was especially fond of his maternal grandfather, Herman Nils Peter Leonard Johnson, proud captain of Rockford’s Fire Station #5.

Tom was a talented athlete and scholar in high school, competing in track (he ran the half mile in 2 minutes, 8 seconds), swimming and football, as well as winning academic accolades. His warm hearted, outgoing personality drew many friends, several with whom he maintained lifelong connections.

After graduating from Rockford East High, Tom attended Augustana College where he was introduced to literature and theology. He briefly pursued medicine but ultimately found himself pulled to share his love of language and passion for big ideas with young people.

In the late 50’s Tom and his notorious adventure buddy from Augustana, Carl Blomgren, traveled to Alaska where Tom fell in love with the state’s pristine beauty. In 1963 he began teaching English to high school students in the small fishing town of Seward in south-central Alaska. That year he met his future wife Katherine Lanman, a senior who wrote in a class essay that if she could be anywhere in the world, it would be a bookstore.

In the spring of his second year teaching, Seward was devastated by a magnitude 9.2 earthquake, the most powerful recorded in North America to this day. The Good Friday Earthquake triggered underwater landslides resulting in a tsunami that wiped out Seward’s industrial waterfront and harbor and destroyed dozens of houses. Remarkably, Tom slept through the quake. He woke to a world turned upside down and when school eventually resumed, his students shared stories of sitting on top of their own collapsed houses and witnessing the earth open and close in front of them.

Tom and Kathy married in Rockford in 1966 shortly after Kathy graduated from nursing school in Minneapolis. The newlyweds moved to Sitka, Alaska, where Tom taught at Mt. Edgecumbe High School and Kathy worked as a nurse at Mt. Edgecumbe Medical Center. In 1969, the couple relocated to Wasilla, Alaska, where they had their daughter, Jeni, and Tom developed his passion for dog mushing. Tom and Kathy joined the Aurora Dog Musher’s Association meeting veteran musher, Joe Reddington Sr., and fellow teacher Gleo Huyck. Joe, Tom and Gleo soon began dreaming of starting a long-distance dog race to revive the dying tradition. Against hair raising odds, their dream became a reality in 1973 with the first Iditarod Trail International Championship Sled Dog Race. Susan Riemer wrote a wonderful piece for the Beachcomber in 2018 on Tom’s contributions to the start of the Iditarod: How a Vashon Islander Helped Launch the Iditarod.

Tom and Kathy separated shortly after the first Iditarod and Tom spent a couple years on Vashon Island in Washington State. He returned to Alaska in the mid-seventies to be closer to his daughter but instead of teaching again, he began commercial fishing and taught himself carpentry. He fished until the late 80s and worked as an independent carpenter until the early 90s when he started to experience health issues. In 2003 he moved again to Vashon where he (mostly) remained until the closing of Vashon Community Care in 2021.

Tom spent his final days at Mount St. Vincent in West Seattle. His daughter, Jeni, moved to Vashon in 2020 to be near him and was able to visit him regularly and share countless laughs and stories.

Those who knew Tom, knew his tender heart, playful spirit, reverence for nature and loyalty to every underdog that ever was. He remained to the end a Green Bay Packers fan, a lover of Swedish pancakes, and an incorrigible flower picker. He held on to his humor and compassion through it all.

Thomas/Tom/Tucker/Tom Deeda/Tunc/Uncly Wunkly/Tugboat/Tommy Tomato: You were loved ever so dearly and will be missed always and forever, times a million. Whatever and wherever you are now, we were unspeakably lucky to have shared in your time here.

A memorial service celebrating Tom’s life will take place at 2pm, August 16, at the Vashon United Methodist Church. All are welcome.