Wililam Joseph Johnson, Jr., 1934-1993

Dr. William Joseph Johnson, Jr., known affectionately as Bill, was a native of Marble Falls, Texas, where he spent the formative years of his life. The son of parents who were deaf and for whom he was constant interpreter and care-giver, Bill early acquired discernment of and sensitivity for the needs of others, finding the role of mediator and counselor necessary and natural. A beloved grandfather, whose insatiable interest in all manner of things Bill also acquired, became a second influence of primary importance in his young life. Bill studied at the University of Houston, Texas, graduating in 1956, receiving his bachelor of divinity degree from Perkins School of Theology in Dallas three years later. It was here that Priscilla Hampton and Bill met and married, a marriage that was to last 33 years until her death in 1991. Their marriage saw the birth of three children: Priscilla Esther, Anne Elizabeth, and William Joseph, III.

In 1959, Bill joined the Yellowstone Annual Conference, becoming pastor of the Morton Memorial Methodist Church in Bozeman, Montana, and Faith Methodist Church the following year. After a leave of absence to earn a master of arts degree in education at Montana State University, he returned to Faith Church in 1966. During this period, his dual interests in counseling and art flourished, leading him to move to Richmond, Va., in 1967, to continue work in the area of clinical pastoral education at the Medical College of Virginia. In 1969, he joined the Virginia Institute of Pastoral Care (VIPCare), becoming the director of the Richmond pastoral counseling centers a year later; from this position he became the executive director of the institute in 1979, a post he held until 1989. For a period of time Bill served as the pastor of Bethel United Methodist Church in the Ashland District and, through his association with VIPCare, as an adjunct member of the faculty of Union Theological Seminary in Richmond. He was named a diplomate of pastoral counseling by the American Association of Pastoral Counselors, the highest recognition of professional achievement given by that organization.

To the clergy of the Virginia Annual Conference, Bill was a wise counselor and an informed and helpful lecturer. During his later  years, he focused on marriage seminars and became a valued premarital counselor to whom active clergy sent couples contemplating marriage. At the time of his death, he was director of services to ministers and director of the Midlothian Pastoral Counseling Center.

To his family and friends, Bill was known for his passion for sculpting, which he studied with John Torres in Richmond and Anderew Wielawski in Lucca, Italy. Whether in rough-hewn wood or stone, Bill found intriguing forms and faces waiting to be revealed. Sculpting was for him both self-expression and catharsis. His memberships reveal his avid dedication to the art; they included the International Sculpture Center in Washington, the Tri-States Sculptors' Guild, the International Wood Collectors Society, the International Celtic Carving League, the American Association of Wood Turners, plus local chapters and organizations of artists. Following the death of his first wife, Bill married another artist, Emily Vaughn Reynolds, with whom he shared these common interests.

Bill Johnson was a warm and caring person who was as quick to see human potential in misshapen relationships and personalities as he was to see aesthetic potential in unformed wood and stone. His absence leaves a void in the lives of those who were his friends and family. The stone waits to be cut.

-Richard N. Soulen