Richard
Johnson passed away in Minnesota on January 10th, 2019. He
was born May 24, 1945 in Omaha, Nebraska. His parents were Philip
Graham Johnson and Della Jane Bowman Johnson. He was deeply
interested in science from an early age, especially Astronomy. At the
age of eight he built his first telescope, grinding his own lenses.
While in High School at Lincoln Southeast he met Professor Carroll
Moore of Nebraska Wesleyan University. Rick became part of a small
group of students who, along with Carroll and Jess Williams, formed
the Prairie Astronomy Club. One of Rick’s close friends from that
group was Peter Schultz who went on to become a top researcher in
cratering and planetary geology at NASA and Brown University. Rick
completed a law degree and later an accounting degree. He taught
accounting at the University of Nebraska – Lincoln for many
years.
From
even a young age he was interested in photography and became
fascinated with photographing astronomical objects. When he found
that existing chemical developers didn’t do what he wanted, he
invented his own developer. It was not only cheaper to make, it
performed better than any commercial developer.
Rick
was part of the founding committee that built Hyde Memorial
Observatory in Lincoln in 1977. At the time public stand-alone
observatories were a rarity in the US. For many years he volunteered
at Hyde Observatory to host groups of school kids.
He met Holly Whitmore one night at Hyde and they
were married in
1991.
He
continued his passion for astrophotography as the world moved into
the digital age. When
Rick and Holly
moved to Nevis, Minnesota in 2005
to build their dream home at the edge of Paul Bunyan
State Forest, he was able to build an observatory as an addition to
the house. He received national and international acclaim among
astronomers both amateur and professional for his imaging and the
extensive documentation that he did for each image. His data was even
used by professional astronomers in their research. And as he
processed the images, he sent them out on an ever-expanding e-mail
list that included not only the previously mentioned astronomers but
also schools across the country.