Dr. Richard Johns

WASHINGTON, DC - Dr. Richard Heezen Johns was born September 14, 1929 in Greensboro, North Carolina to Clarence Durwood Johns and Caroline Johanna Heezen Johns, history professors at the Women's College of the University of North Carolina (now the University of North Carolina at Greensboro). Dr. Johns received his undergraduate degree in Chemistry in 1950 and his doctorate in Chemistry in 1955 from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His uncle, William Edward Dodd, served as US ambassador to Germany from 1933-37 and retired to his farm in Round Hill, Virginia where Dr. Johns was a frequent visitor in his youth. Dr. Johns lost both parents during college and faced considerable adversity in the completion of his university education.

A Celebration of Life and a Service of Death and Resurrection was held for Dr. Johns on Friday, June 12 at the Washington Street United Methodist Church at 109 S Washington St, Alexandria, Virginia. Graveside service and burial will be Saturday, June 20, 2015, at 12:30 PM at Oakwood Cemetery in Raleigh, North Carolina with family and friends in attendance.

Following completion of his PhD, Dr. Johns served as a professor of chemistry from 1956-57 at Vassar College in New York before moving to Washington, DC to work as a analytical chemist at Melpar Corporation in Falls Church, Virginia. His career in research and development also included posts at Atlantic Research Corporation, the National Bureau of Standards, and Mitre Corporation prior to a career as an independent patent consultant at the U.S. Patent Office in Alexandria, Virginia where he advised clients on the development of a wide range of technology patent applications. Dr. Johns was a member of the American Chemical Society for 60 years, and a frequent participant in conferences and technical meetings.

Dr. Johns resided at River Park Mutual Homes near the Maine Avenue waterfront of Southwest Washington, DC for over 50 years, and was active in his homeowners associations, as well as with many families and friends with whom he established close long-term friendships. He was a fully recovered member of Alcoholics Anonymous for 31 years and regular attendee at meetings in Washington, DC and Northern Virginia with a wide circle of friends. He was an avid bicyclist, sailor, photographer, traveler, reader, writer, conversationalist, music aficionado, and lover of pets. Dr. Johns often enjoyed the outdoors with close friends in the mountains of western Fauquier County, Virginia. Dr. Johns was active with the United Methodist Church of Old Town Alexandria, Virginia.

Dr. Johns is survived by extended family, including Franklin Brown Jr., Joseph Brown, Nathan Brown, Louise Yates, John Lewis Payne Jr., Elizabeth Yates Fahrion Steele, Alice Mott Hazlett Kessing, Elizabeth Heston, Barbara Birch Stafford, James Cheatham IV, Lou Cheatham Holmes, William Cooper Hunter, Mary Harris Everett, Clyde P. Harris, Rena Evelyn Johns Gregory, Evelyn John Gregory Luck, Martha Harrison Gregory Knisely, Inga Kent McCord, Gretchen Kent Kerr, and Richard Kent Jr. His close friends in the Metropolitan Washington, DC region included the Peterson families of Falls Church and Fairfax, the Torres families of Annandale and Vienna, Patricia Young of Arlington and McLean, and his neighbors Joan King and Bernard Heiler of Washington, DC.

Dr. Johns is remembered universally as a kind, patient, honest, and well humored man who was humble and giving beyond his intellect and accomplishments.