Ralph Gordon Johnson, Jr. ’37 died on October 22, 2003, in Brockton, Massachusetts.

Born on March 17, 1914, in Brockton, he prepared for college at Brockton High School and Bucksport Seminary in Maine and became a member of Zeta Psi Fraternity at Bowdoin. Following his graduation in 1937, he was a reporter with the Brockton Enterprise for a year and then joined the faculty at Nichols Junior College in Dudley, MA. In 1941, he received a master of education degree from Boston University, and during World War II he served in the U.S. Army Air Force from 1942 to 1946, attaining the rank of captain. After the war, he taught for two years at Brockton High School and in 1949 rejoined the Brockton Enterprise as a reporter. After many years there as a reporter and as an editorial writer, he retired in 1981. An Eagle Scout as a young man, he began jogging in 1965 and was the lead jogger at the Old Colony YMCA for many years, winning the Paul Dudley White Award for his achievements, including more than 37,000 recorded miles. He was a member of the Masons, the American Legion, the Quarter Century Club of the Brockton Enterprise, the 500 Club of the Square Dance Foundation of New England, and several square and round dance clubs in the Brockton area. Surviving are his wife, Charlene Baker Johnson, whom he married in 1942; two sons, Ralph G. Johnson, III ’66 of Rockland MA, and Charles Johnson, also of Rockland; a daughter, Charlene S. Holmes of Bel Air, MD; seven grandchildren; and seven great-grandchildren.