TAPS
Editor’s Note: The Navy family is smaller this month. Joy Johnson left us unexpectedly. Spouse of ADM Gregory G. Johnson, she was a presence in the life of dozens of air intelligence officers and members of senior staffs. She made the world better for living in it. “Grog” Johnson penned this loving obituary of a remarkable woman.
– Ed.
06 August 2016. Joyanne Jewett Johnson of Harpswell passed away on at Mid Coast
Hospital’s Bodwell Hospice Facility in Brunswick. She was in the presence of her loving family.
She was diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer in late March. Facing her foe with grace,
courage, and dignity, she spent the last four and half months battling this implacable disease.
She forsook the traditional chemo therapy protocol and sought treatment in Japan where
she spent a month undergoing regimen of immune and gene therapies at the Saisei Mirai
Clinic in Kyoto. She achieved temporary relief, but the complications of the disease soon
continued their inexorable march.
The family wishes to thank the entire team at Mid Coast – Parkview Health, especially at the
Bodwell Center and Hospice Care Facility, for their caring professionalism and
comforting compassion as well as the team at New England Cancer Specialists. We
also want to thank Dr. Toshio Inui and his team at the Saisei Mirai Clinic along with her
ND, Dr. Frederic Shotz, who provided immeasurable support and helped her find Dr.
Inui.
Joy was born in Castine, Maine June 17, 1946, and grew up in Bucksport. She was the
daughter of George Hebert Jewett and Ellen Louise Randall Jewett who both predeceased
her. She attended local schools in Bucksport. In 1968 she graduated from the
University of Maine With Distinction earning a B.A. degree in Sociology. She was a
member of Phi Mu Sorority, Secretary of the Student Senate, a Varsity Cheerleader,
and an All Maine Woman. After graduation, she remained active with the Class of ‘68.
Since returning to Maine in 2004, she has been very active in Class and Alumni
activities coordinating and hosting numerous alumni events, including many in the barn
on Snow Ridge Farm which was the salt water farm where she lived with her husband,
animals, and gardens. It was here that her two daughters and all her grandchildren
spent each summer with her.
She became an avid fly-fisher and spent a good deal of time on most of Maine’s best
cold water fishing venues with her husband, family, and friends. There were both canoe
and drift boat trips on the West Branch, drift boat trips on the East Outlet, annual family
visits to Grand Lake Stream and the St. Croix River, and trips to the Kennebago,
Magalloway, and Rapid Rivers
At the beginning of her sophomore year, she met her future husband, Gregory G.
Johnson of Westmanland, Maine. Following a three-year courtship, they were married
on July 6, 1968. She commenced a short-lived employment working for the State of
Maine Department of Health and Human Services as a Social Worker while her
husband entered Aviation Officer Candidate School and was commissioned in
February, 1969.
She then began a 36 year run of the nomadic life associated with being part of a military
family. During the first 25 years her husband was deployed over 2/3 of the time which
meant during that period she was more often than not a “single parent.” She was a
loved and caring mother to her two daughters, Sydney Randall Johnson Mroweic and
Ashley Em Johnson Techet.
From 1978 to 1990, the family was fortunate to reside in Jacksonville, FL in the same
house, on the same street, belonging to the same church, enjoying the continuity of the
same friends, classmates, and neighborhood. For a significant majority of those 12 years
she was a “single parent” and she worked hard to make life exciting and interesting
for her daughters. She had the capacity to turn activities into great adventures. There
were numerous trips to Cumberland Island, tubing on the Ichetucknee, visits to the
Okefenokee Wilderness, class trips to Washington, D.C., and summers with her daughters
at Skyland Camp in Clyde, NC.
It was also during this period that she began to perfect the tradition of turning every birthday
party, social event, and milestone occasion into something special. She was the master of
memorable parties which continued to her last days when she organized with her daughters’
help a memorable co- 70th Birthday Party for herself and husband which she shared with
their family and friends.
In addition to being a loving and supportive mother and spouse, she always found ways
to establish her own identity. She found interesting employment wherever we lived; founded
a business, Canvas Cutters, which she could take with her whenever she
moved; served for several years as Director of Arts and Crafts at a girl’s summer camp
near Clyde, NC; and always found ways and time to help those whose lives were more
cluttered and complicated than the life she enjoyed.
During the last 1/3 of those 36 years as a Navy Spouse, the assignments included time
on large senior staffs or command of large U.S. and NATO staffs with demanding
social, entertainment, and cultural responsibilities. Her creative talents came to the fore.
She was an elegant and gracious hostess. A Joy hosted event was always one where
the guests enjoyed themselves, had fun, and went home with fond memories.
In addition to her family, her abiding legacy will be the work she did throughout her life
helping those facing difficulties. She possessed a unique trait that many aspire to but
few genuinely achieve – the ability to be truly non-judgmental and totally unconditional
in providing care and support. That is what made her so effective working with those in
need. Her genuinely caring demeanor resulted in an immediate and deep trust.
To begin, throughout the 36 year Navy odyssey, she was supportive of and often an
active volunteer with the Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society wherever the family was
assigned.
During the family’s last assignment in Jacksonville in the late 1980s, she began working
for Downtown Ecumenical Services Council (DESC) providing emergency food,
clothing, and financial assistance to people in need. She was fearless in getting out and
about to provide those services to the needy populations in and amongst the most
difficult neighborhoods in downtown Jacksonville and greater Duval County. While
working for DESC, she also participated in the Fall 1989 March for the Homeless in
Washington D.C.
In the 1990s during her husband’s last two assignments in the Pentagon (1990 – 1994
and 1997 – 2000), she did two stints with the Fairfax County Department of Health and
Human Services. The initial period was during the height of the HIV-AIDS epidemic.
She worked closely with this population which was often abandoned by families and
suffered lonely, agonizing illnesses and ultimately death in public facilities. On her own
time she would spend countless hours attempting to reunite the remains of deceased
AIDS/HIV clients with their estranged families. She also worked diligently with the shut-in
and alone elderly to make sure they had adequate services and support.
The last four years of the Navy journey was spent in Italy. There she became involved
with several charities supporting orphans and those suffering from drug addiction. One
of the first was “EXODUS” which was a live-in drug rehabilitation center near Monte
Cassino north of Naples. During those four years she worked continuously to support
EXODUS as an institution as well as the individual patients. She invited them to her
residence, arranged visits on aircraft carriers during port visits in Naples, had the
EXODUS “Jimmy Buffet Band” perform at official functions at her residence, and
annually treated them to a fully volunteer catered U.S. style Thanksgiving Day Meal.
She left an abiding legacy at EXODUS.
Another effort was focused on the “Centro Laila” Orphanage in Mondragone. Most of
these children were the abandoned offspring of African refugees and immigrants who
worked as prostitutes. Their prospects of being adopted were very remote. She helped
raise funds, organized volunteer working parties, visited frequently, and made sure the
orphans had a front row seat at the annual Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony at the
NATO Headquarters Compound along with an individual gift for each child.
After returning home to Maine in the Fall 2004, her selfless efforts to assist community
organizations and those in need found new and wonderful entities to support. For three
years she coordinated amongst the various organizations and businesses that provided
the evening meal at Tedford Shelter in Brunswick. That adds up to over 1000 dinners.
Of course, she was the provider of last resort should someone forget or otherwise miss
a commitment. Her freezer was always stocked with extra pans of lasagna to rush over
to the Shelter at the last minute.
She was a member of the Mid Coast Hospital Auxiliary and for three years chaired the
Annual Yard Sale. This was a major undertaking. She loved the special group of folks
with whom she worked. Under her leadership it truly became a labor of love and great
fun while each year raising very substantive funds to support Mid Coast Hospital and
the residents it serves within its catchment area.
Her final quest to help others began five years ago. She single – handedly conceived
the vision for and founded Embrace A Vet (EAV), a 501©3 dedicated to providing direct
and supportive services to Maine veterans and their families living with Post Traumatic
Stress (PTS) and Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) . It has three lines of services – healing
and wellness retreats, Paws for Peace which provides service dogs, and caregiver
support programs. She served as its Executive Director the past five years until her
death. It was her fervent hope that the wonderful work of the EAV Team will continue
and be her enduring legacy.
She is survived by her husband of 48 years, Admiral Gregory G. Johnson, USN-Ret.
and their two daughters, Sydney Randall Johnson Mrowiec and Ashley Em Johnson
Techet; her mother in law, Carolyn Warrena Peterson Johnson; two aunts, Flora
Morgan Randall Crosson and Nancy Jewett Lord; an uncle, Ralph Joseph Jewett; two
sons-in-law David Bradley Mroweic and Andrew Holden Techet; and five grandchildren,
Warren Bradley Mroweic, Gregory Holden Techet, Owen Andrew Techet, Soren William
Techet, and Emma Scout Techet.
A Memorial Service and Celebration of Joy’s Life is planned for 11:00AM, Friday,
August 26, at First Parish Church in Brunswick, Maine. A reception will follow in The
Barn at Snow Ridge Farm, 69 Shore Road, Harpswell, ME 04079.
In lieu of flowers, please consider donations in Joy’s memory to: 1.) Embrace A
Vet,www.embraceavet.org or P.O. Box 516, Topsham, ME 04086; 2.) Joyanne Jewett
Johnson Scholarship Fund, payable to the University of Maine Foundation, Two Alumni
Place, Orono, ME 04469 or http://umainefoundation.or g/about-thefoundation/memorial/;
or 3.) Clergy Spiritual Enrichment Fund, First Parish Church, 9
Cleaveland Street, Brunswick, ME 04011.