Joseph S. Johnston, 1910-2004

  Joseph Shackford Johnston, D.D., husband of Edna Cralle Sanders Johnston, passed from this life on Maundy Thursday, April 8, 2004. He was known affectionately as Dr. Joe to many throughout his full-time ministry of 43 years and his 16 years thereafter. Born in Farmville, Va., in 1910, Dr. Johnston was graduated from the University of Virginia in 1932 and received a Master of Divinity from Yale University in 1935. His honorary doctorate was bestowed by Randolph-Macon College.

  In 1936 he married Edna Cralle, and they celebrated their 68th anniversary this past January. They have two daughters and sons-in-law, Anne and Henry Owen of Wicomico Church; and Virginia and James Philbrick of White Stone; and one son and daughter-in-law, Joseph and Susan Johnston, Jr., of Annapolis, Md.; eight grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren.

  Dr. Johnston’s ministry began in the Methodist Church (Virginia Conference) in 1935 in Whaleyville. He subsequently served churches in Oakton, Vienna, and Warrenton. He was then appointed to Arlington Methodist Church, Epworth Methodist Church in Norfolk, and Reveille Methodist Church in Richmond, where he oversaw the development of a new church from two old Richmond congregations. In 1959 he became superintendent of the Norfolk District. There he saw his many years of strong advocacy for a Methodist college in Tidewater come to fruition with the founding of Virginia Wesleyan College (VWC) in Norfolk. He was elected the first president of VWC in 1965.

  In the latter part of his career, Dr. Johnston served as minister of Washington Street United Methodist Church in Alexandria and of Springfield UMC. He then became superintendent of the Petersburg District from which he retired. A strong proponent of higher education, Dr. Johnston served as a trustee of Ferrum Junior College from 1960-65 and again from 1967-72. He was chairperson of the conference Commission on Higher Education from 1968-72, and was awarded the John Wesley Distinguished Education Award for Higher Education last August.

  In retirement, he remained active as interim pastor of two churches and guest minister at many churches of several denominations, and he continued his work on conference committees. He had a gift for, and love of, writing that resulted in several publications throughout his life. In 1972, he wrote "A Time to Heal," a booklet for those who are hospitalized. He edited the diary of his grandfather, Joseph Wesley Shackford (also a Methodist minister in Virginia) in 1991. Last spring, the fascinating memoir of his career in the ministry, "When the Bishops Said, ‘Go!’" was published.

  His family and friends remember him as gentle, curious (even to his last days) about an endless number of subjects, and never regarding age as a determinant of ability. He was a skilled and eager storyteller and he left behind wonderful true stories from throughout his life (some funny and some most poignant). He loved the church and the fellowship of those who are its members. This is attested to by the fact that he proudly attended every Virginia Annual Conference but one, that being last year’s when he was hospitalized. As one editorialist said upon his death, "Dr. Johnston was as full an embodiment of the term "Christian gentleman" as one will find in this life, but he would be most pleased if all of us remembered him as a "good and faithful servant."