William Treby Johnson Jr. ’53

William Treby Johnson Jr. ’53 died on December 13, 2009, in Augusta, Maine.

He was born on September 11, 1930, in Waterville, the son of William Treby Johnson ’06, and prepared for college at Cony High School and Governor Dummer Academy. He attended Bowdoin from 1949 to 1952 and was a member of Beta Theta Pi fraternity. He later studied real estate law at the University of Maine and became a certified business consultant. He served in the Army National Guard from 1948 to 1953 and attained the rank of staff sergeant. He collected guns as a youth, owning about 50 by the time he was 20. In 1950, he graduated first in his class from the Ordnance School at Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland with a “superior” rating. He was a registered Maine guide for more than 50 years and was an enthusiastic hunter in his pre- business days. After leaving Bowdoin, he owned and operated the Brunswick Gas Service Co. In 1954 he bought Stone & Cooper Fuel Co. in Augusta, which he ran until 1984, when he sold it to Webber Energy and retired. He served as president, chief executive officer, and chairman of the board of 1st Consumers Bank. He also was a member of the Jaycees and Rotary and served on the Depositors Trust Co. advisory board and boards of directors of the Kennebec Valley Chamber of Commerce, the Kennebec Valley YMCA, Augusta General Hospital (now MaineGeneral Medical Center), Augusta Savings Bank, Maine Savings Bank, and One Bank Corporation of Portland. He also served on the boards of the Maine Oil Dealers Association; the New England Fuel Institute of Waltham, Mass.; Exxon Oil Corporation’s East Coast Council; and the U.S. Small Business Administration. He was chairman of the Augusta Parking District, the Augusta Planning Board, and the Marshall Point Lighthouse Committee; a member of the St. George Municipal Facilities Committee, the St. George Youth and Scouting Council, and the Marshall Point Landing Association board; St. George deputy harbor master; and a trustee and treasurer of the Herring Gut Learning Center. He was selected as the Outstanding Oil Dealer of the Year by the Maine Oil Dealers Association, as Outstanding Man of the Year by the Kennebec Valley Chamber of Commerce, and for Le Club Calumet’s Annual Citizen Award, all in 1980. He also was elected as an honorary member of the Le Club Calumet. He is survived by his wife of five years, Arline Bosse Foster Johnson; three sons, William Treby Johnson III, Thomas Johnson and Peter Johnson; a daughter, Jane Moore; a stepdaughter, Karen Knuth; two stepsons, Matthew Foster and Stephen Foster; a sister, Dorothy “Timi” Johnson; a brother, Frank Johnson; six grandchildren; and eight step-grandchildren. He was predeceased by his first wife, Anne Plummer Johnson, who died in 1999 after 46 years of marriage.