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Anne Davini-Johnson
Ed Johnson
September 17th, 1968 - February 14th, 2020
September 17th, 1968 - February 14th, 2020
SEE MEMORIAL SLIDESHOW AT https://dropevent.com/slideshow/EdJohnson2020
LISTEN TO MEMORIAL PLAYLIST AT https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3THpIdAr29vAYmf8KuHBr8?si=oVbsKv7pRViqNbzqGh7iqg
IMPORTANT NOTE: This page is temporary only. If you have memories you'd like to share with the family, please email them to MEMORIES.EDJOHNSON@GMAIL.COM rather than posting here.
Ed was born September 17, 1968 at Fort Hood, Texas, joining Susan, Jean, Holly and Mitchell as the second son and youngest child of Charles Mitchell Johnson, an Army Chaplain, and Jean Howie Johnson, a pianist. As a result of his father's army career, he moved frequently as a child, living in Texas, South Carolina, Kansas, and New York, ultimately settling in Virginia and graduating from Colonial Heights High School, where he was Class President.
It was during these teenage years that Ed developed his love for cycling. In 1984, he easily won the Virginia state 15 and under road race and traveled to New Hampshire to compete at Nationals. The following year, Ed secured a spot on the Fanini junior racing team, which became the winningest junior team in the country in his first season. During his tenure with the team, Ed secured a number of victories in key races up and down the East coast, traveled with the team to race in Italy, and demonstrated the qualities he would become known for throughout his life: intelligence, ambition, leadership and a sense of humor.
Ed went on to attend Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, where he was a member of the Alpha Tau Omega Fraternity and the Cameron Crazies. His passion for Duke athletics, pride in its academic excellence, and ability to offer data-driven soliloquies on both were unmatched. It was here he cultivated his love of politics and environmental concerns, graduating from the Sanford School of Public Policy in 1990.
After graduation, Ed joined the staff of the Fund for the Public Interest, part of The Public Interest Network, beginning a 30-year career in fundraising for progressive causes and environmental advocacy. From 2007 on, Ed directed all of the Network’s grassroots fundraising and membership recruitment – ranging from protecting the Clean Air Act, to preserving our nation’s forests, to reducing our dependence on single use plastics – generating 6 million individual donations for 96 organizations. In 2017, Ed became president of Environment America, though perhaps his greatest professional legacy lies in the literally countless number of activists and organizers who he recruited, trained and inspired.
In December 1998, Ed and Annie were introduced by friends at a shared staff / alumni vacation in Colorado. Within a few sentences, Annie mentioned that she recalled him from previous brief meetings as “the funniest guy ever!” and the rest is history. They were engaged within weeks and married in August of 2000, as soon as Ed could move to Minnesota – just as anyone who falls in love with a St. Paulite needs to do. He was embraced by the city and the Davini family alike, becoming the left-wing rabble-rouser they loved, rather than the electrician they thought they needed.
Though raised primarily in the South and living most recently in sunny Santa Monica and steamy DC, Ed embraced his adopted northern home like no other. He was St. Paul’s biggest fan, never missing an opportunity to sing its praises or rail against Minneapolis, cajoling legions of hesitant friends and colleagues to visit and compete in distance running during the winter, and voluntarily taking on the heartache that is being a Twins and Vikings fan. Though a self-described “retired Methodist”, he made occasional guest appearances and consistent contributions to St. Thomas More Catholic Church and was an inaugural booster of the St. Paul Baseball Club.
In June of 2005, Ed and Annie welcomed their first son, Augie, and 2 years later, their second, Louis. Balancing his professional ambitions with the desire to be fully present and engaged with his family was a true challenge, but one that Ed not only took on, but excelled at – even helping others to follow in his footsteps. His boys were his greatest pride and joy: Augie the sporty sidekick and Louis the quirky character, both as smart, funny and handsome as they could be, just like their dad.
In April 2007, when Annie was 5 months pregnant with Louis, Ed was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma, an incurable cancer of the blood. From that day he fought with all his might (which anyone who tried to present a half-baked proposal to him knew was a lot) enduring 3 stem cell transplants, radiation, multiple other stem cell therapies, a CAR T-cell trial, and literally every FDA-approved drug for myeloma save two which, in the end, would have accelerated his demise rather than staved it off.
In 2008, Ed formed TEAM TIRED (“Ed is Tired of Cancer”) to benefit the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation’s pursuit of a cure for not only himself, but for all of those stricken by the illness. With his involvement and fundraising prowess, the Twin Cities 5k flourished, and TEAM TIR(ED) expanded to include runners and teams from Los Angeles to DC and everywhere in between, raising awareness and over $100k to fund critical research.
All of this he did for the people and the world around him. He wasn’t a religious man, but he was faithful to his core. Faithful to his principles, faithful to his work, faithful to his family and friends, faithful to his role on this Earth.
Let perpetual light shine upon him, and may he rest in peace forever.
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Anne Davini-Johnson
FUNERAL BLUES // W. H. AUDEN Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone, Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone, Silence the pianos and with muffled drum Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come. Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead Scribbling on the sky the message 'He is Dead'. Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves, Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves. He was my North, my South, my East and West, My working week and my Sunday rest, My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song; I thought that love would last forever: I was wrong. The stars are not wanted now; put out every one, Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun, Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood; For nothing now can ever come to any good.
Anne Davini-Johnson
POEM // LOUIS JOHNSON George / Kind, cool, helpful and great. / Father of Louis and Augie. / Lover of Annie Johnson, Louis Johnson and Augie Johnson and Duke. / Who feels kind when he makes meals for Louis an Augie, who feels proud when Louis gets good grades and who feels energized when he takes a walk. / Who needs nice kids, who needs peace and quiet and who needs not to have cancer anymore. / Who gives me time on Xbox, who gives me Robux. / Who cooks waffles, who cooks English muffins, and who cooks cheese burritos. / Who fears me getting hurt, who fears getting too sick from his cancer and who fears having to go to the hospital with no one with him. / Who would like to see Duke, who would like to see his dad and who would like to see his brother. / Resident of Saint Paul, Minnesota, USA / Johnson
Anne Davini-Johnson
EULOGY // FAYE PARK My name is Faye Park, and Ed and I started working together 30 years at The Public Interest Network. Some of you know us as PIRG, some as Environment America, some as the Fund for the Public Interest. All you need to know about us today is that we are a pretty big, tight-knit family. I’d like to attempt to describe Ed’s legacy with us by talking about a campaign he worked on several years ago. During the 2000s, the laws that protect the health and vitality of the Mississippi River, Minnesota’s lakes, and other water bodies across the country were coming under attack. Our work to fight off those attacks culminated in a campaign in 2013-2014. Ed, as always, brought many talents to this campaign. But his specialty was -harnessing the energy of enthusiastic but often inexperienced idealists; -training them to be determined advocates; -and transforming them into a team of campaigners that did the not-so-glamorous work of knocking on people’s doors, asking them to take a moment out of their frenzied lives, and to give them an opportunity to take concrete action to protect our environment and health. At the peak of our campaign in 2014, Ed’s team was sending out over 900 people a night to neighborhoods all over the country. 200,000 of those people whose dinners Ed interrupted sent written comments to the Environmental Protection Agency asking for strong clean water protections. This ended up being over 25% of all the comments the EPA received, and (since we all know how competitive Ed is), by far more than any other single group. We won that campaign. Then EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy said, “you guys have been front and center on this effort. You’ve knocked on doors, you’ve talked to more than 1 million Americans, you are changing the national conversation.” That is just one campaign over the course of Ed’s 30 year career. So: what made Ed the team building virtuoso that he was? First, he was able to make a meaningful connection with just about everyone-- including me. And I did not make it easy for him. To be honest, it took me a while to warm up to Ed when we first met. I immediately pidgeon-holed him as a frat boy from Duke, with more polished social skills at the age of 21 than I will (let’s face it) ever have, I figured he was just biding his time and building his resume until he was ready to run for office. I suspected he was pidgeon-holing me as an uptight nerdy girl who never showed up at the bar after work to bond over, I don’t know…. Duke? Basketball? I came to understand that all that pidgeon-holing was happening inside my neurotic head. That we became close friends despite my insecurities is testament to his generous spirit and his unshakeable faith that there was an important connection to be made with not just me, but with literally hundreds of canvassers and campaign organizers over the decades. Second, he inspired us to make tough choices. An alum of ours, who grew up in Colonial Heights a year behind Ed, wrote us when he heard that Ed had passed, and explained that Ed is the one who convinced him to take our job instead of a more traditional and lucrative job in DC: “Because of Ed's inspiration, I have devoted my career to environmental advocacy and have spent the past 20 years working for The Natural Resources Defense Council. It's amazing when you think about what one person can do to affect another person's life. Because of Ed, I rejected the safe path by joining the fight to protect the planet -- and will continue to do so for as a long as I live. I'm so grateful for the example he set as a leader, a mentor, a campaigner, and a positive force for good.” Third, Resilience. Doing this work is an uphill battle. That clean water victory from 2014? We are gearing up to go to court to try to block the current administration from rolling back the protections that we won. Suffice it to say that no one has taught us more about resilience than Ed. And finally: He always made sure we had fun. Ed’s ability to bring people together was never more needed than after the 2016 election. As our colleague, Rich Hannigan, remembers it: A week after Election Day, dozens of us were gathered in Alexandria, VA for a national meeting. The night before the meeting, Ed pulled up in front of the hotel in a humongous SUV. A group of us piled in. First stop? Krispy Kreme. Second stop? Beer. Playing on the sound system? ‘Bat Out of Hell’ by Meat Loaf. We were shell-shocked and exhausted after the election, but we were eating Krispy Kremes, drinking beer, singing “Paradise by the Dashboard Lights” at the top of our lungs, and enjoying each other’s company, without irony or inhibition. Ed’s mini-road trip left our hearts a little lighter, and our resolve a little stronger for the fight ahead, because we were in this particular foxhole together. To Ed, Annie, Augie, Louis and your whole family: we can’t thank you enough for making room in your foxhole for all of us over these past 13 years. We know that Ed could have applied his considerable talents in so many other ways; instead he chose to use them to build a team of people who are, even today, in the face of our great loss, getting ready to go out and knock on doors tonight to save the world.
Anne Davini-Johnson
EULOGY // AUGIE JOHNSON FIrst off I just want to say that my dad is without a doubt the strongest person I have ever met. I’m not talking about physically but mentally this man has been through so much and has kept pushing through it all. Right before my little brother was born my father was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma and the doctors told him most people live just 5 to 7 years. Anyone who encounters an obstacle in their life of this magnitude is likely to step back and live the rest of their life awaiting their day of death in fear. My dad took that life expectancy prediction as a challenge and he fought, fought, and fought some more. Almost anyone would’ve just accepted their fate and live the rest of their life not making the most of it. It wasn’t even that he was just fighting for himself, he was fighting for our family. He was fighting to watch his kids grow up, he was fighting to be here for our whole family. I don’t think anyone in the staff at the doctor’s that day would have expected him to live past those 5 years. It has been close to 13 years since that day when he was diagnosed. Even through all those years, my dad, a man who had a deadly illness the whole time, worked and provided funds for himself and our family, took us on trips, and did everything a normal father would do. Throughout all that he was doing cancer treatments and with the help of his doctors he outlived that expectancy by almost triple and barely complained at all. He has been through 10’s of different treatments and had probably 100’s of blood transfusions and needles put inside of him. He rarely got fed up with the nurses or complained during these treatments snad was probably one of the most polite people you had ever met. He stayed strong through all this and I may sound like a broken record but he never gave up. Everytime the nurses or doctors told him he couldn't do something he wanted to do he always, and I mean always found a way to overcome it. It all started when he was diagnosed and expected to live only 5 more years. Everytime the doctors tried to put him in a wheelchair or give him something to help him walk he’d always say there's no way that’s happening. When they told him he couldn’t go to work he found a way to work from home and still benefited his company until the end. When they told him he couldn’t be out of the hospital in time, with the help of the nurses, he fought and made it out for whatever his kids needed. A couple months ago when they told him he couldn’t take the plane to Florida, he said we’re just going to do it and he lasted the whole trip. One other thing I always remarked about my father was that he could adapt to any situation. He grew up with a father in the military so he learned early how to adapt to new places and be able to do things for himself with his father being sent to war sometimes. Just to name a few of the 22 places he lived in between being born in Fort Hood, Texas to his death in Saint Paul Minnesota, here are some: Fort Jackson, Columbia, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, Fort Wadsworth, NYC, Colonial Heights Virginia, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, Washington D.C., Los Angeles California. I think having to move so many times and having to adapt and make new friends helped him to adapt to being diagnosed with cancer. He adapted to his new life but always tried to live like he was normal as much as possible.
Anne Davini-Johnson
EULOGY // CHRIS MELLOTT My name is Chris Mellott and I have had the great fortune of being Ed Johnson’s brother-in-law and husband of his sister Jean. Ed was the ring bearer in our wedding. At Ed’s father’s contrivance, I and Ed’s sister Susie’s husband spent the first hours of Christmas day 1977, building Ed’s first 10 speed bike. Little did we know that Ed would dedicate the long hours and endure the mile after mile of hard cycling to become the Virginia State High School Champion biker before he graduated from Colonial Heights High School. Before moving to Virginia, Ed lived in Staten Island and in 1978 came to Maryland with his parents where his sister Holly entered the third class of women at the Naval Academy and where his future brother-in-law Chuck was already a midshipman. We recall Ed, then ten, the son of an Army Chaplin, running all over the Annapolis campus shouting “Go Army” with Ed’s loving mother, Jean, keeping them all in her care. After High School, Ed went onto Duke where he majored in Poli Sci. He also continued his biking. During a couple of the summers between his college years at Duke, Ed spent a week or two with Jean and me in Baltimore. He had tireless energy and patience. He waited atop many a hill when we went for bike rides, while I huffed my way up the same incline. Ed also spent time working on projects around our house. Baltimore summers can be brutal with 90-degree heat and 100% humidity. Perhaps those type summer jobs inspired Ed to find some better alternatives for college students as he then spent tireless years organizing summer college intern programs for PIRG. One of those college interns PIRG hired was our younger son Peter, who also worked for PIRG in Boston post-graduation a couple of years back. Again an example of Ed’s impact on our lives. One Duke summer, Ed was working on Capitol Hill for a Virginia Congressman and living with his brother Mitchell. Mitchell recalls seeing that summer an integrity in Ed that resulted in Ed deciding that he did not care for all the games occurring in DC. Ed found an alternative to advocate his public interest concerns through what became his life’s work-PIRG, the Fund for Public Interest and Environment America. And thanks to PIRG, Ed met Annie. We all recall Ed and Annie’s beautiful wedding here in St. Paul at the Cathedral and Ed clearly made St. Paul his home as his family expanded and he was welcomed by all the incredibly supportive Davinis. Annie- you brought Ed so much joy and provided him such strength as together you confronted Ed’s illness. To Annie and to all of us, I share these words by the 11th Century Spanish Physician Jehudah Halevi: Tis a fearful thing to love what death can touch. A fearful thing to love, to hope, to dream, to be – to be, And oh, to lose. A thing for fools, this, And a holy thing, a holy thing to love. For your life has lived in us, your laugh once lifted us, your word was gift to us. To remember this brings painful joy. ‘Tis a human thing, love, a holy thing, to love what death has touched. ‘Tis a Fearful Thing’, by Jehudah Halevi Donia, wife of Mitchell, shared that she will never forget that when her mother died, Ed was the first person to jump on a plane and come to her side. Just seeing him standing at the door was such comfort. "What can I do to help you during the service?" he said. "I need someone to make tea for about 50 people afterwards. You know how to make tea, right?" Donia said. "Can you show me?" Ed replied. "Show you how to boil water?" They laughed easily together. Donia comments "Persians are very particular about their tea so you have to brew it just so or the aunties will come after you," Donia knew this was asking a lot of our little brother but he didn't hesitate and indeed he left the service early to put the kettle on. It may seem like a small thing, but it meant everything to Donia. Ed was there for each of us; a Presence. He was a carrying and wonderful Uncle to his 14 nieces and nephews. And the loving and engaged Father of his two sons. To Augie and Louis please know how proud your Father was of each of you. A Judge said to me after by Father died years ago, “don’t stop talking to him.” I thought at the time that it seemed an unusual statement, but I have recalled it often over the years and made use of that good advice. So, I suggest to all of us and especially to Augie and Louis, to continue to talk to your father, whether asking what he would have done, recalling one of his sage pieces of advice or a joke, or just thinking about sharing a concern or joyous moment with him. There is a line from the end of the third Harry Potter book that I find comforting. Professor Dumbledore says, “You think the dead we loved ever truly leave us? You think that we don’t recall them more clearly than ever in times of great trouble? Your father, husband, brother, uncle, cousin, friend is alive in you ….”
Anne Davini-Johnson
RECEPTION REMARKS // JEAN MELLOTT I first met Ed on September 18, 1968. We siblings weren’t allowed in the delivery suite, so we had to wait till visiting hours the next day. We were living in fort hood, Texas, so, yes, Ed was born in Texas. It didn’t have much affect on him, because we moved to South Carolina six months later to be near our mother’s family while our dad was in Vietnam. Ed didn’t talk much early on, mainly because he couldn’t hear, due to blocked eustacian tubes in his ears, but I remember vividly his first words, Hot Dog! He made up for this later. And he was a charmer, big brown eyes and the longest lashes, as well as a shit eating grin. When we moved to Kansas, the next year, Ed was moms little buddy because the rest of us were in school. They would spend the mornings after school drop off watching construction equipment. My sister Susi and I took care of him after school, and we took him everywhere with us. But as he got bigger, he and Mitchell would spend afternoons and evenings riding big wheels around and around our alley, and digging landscapes for their G I Joes under our porch. If I had a date, though, Ed would meet the guy at the door, ask if he was there to pick me up, and then land the poor guy with a punch in the nuts. We had this huge white station wagon and Ed was always stuck in the front seat between our parents. Summers were frequently spent visiting family in Florida and South Carolina. The best feature of these trips was the lizard cage that our dad would build so that they could catch lizards and bring them back to sell to the pet shop. My friends at Duke remember him riding his skateboard up and down the halls of our dorm. From Kansas the family moved to Staten Island. Ed went to the Marshall School, where he learned to play the flute, ride a bike, and set fire to abandoned Bunkers. Finally my dad accepted a retirement assignment at fort lee, Virginia, and the family moved to colonial heights, where Ed went to junior high and high school. Like his son, Augie, he played football and we would come down for his Friday night games. And started seriously cycling. He went off to Duke, joined the ATO. There was a story about a chicken... His senior year, Ed took a semester abroad at the university of Glasgow, where he developed a life long taste for peaty scotch. As his older sisters went off to college and jobs and marriage, he adopted our husbands as additional big brothers. He was in all three of our weddings. He spent summers and some holidays with holly and her family and with us. And when we had kids, he was a great uncle. He and Mitchell would borrow our babies and go to the mall, using their cute nieces and nephews to pick up girls. But he also was there for them, as they got older, offering advice and a listening ear, and introducing them to his world and friends. He got to be the big brother for a change. If I had to pick a word to describe my beloved bother, it would be “present”. He listened, he acted like he had all the time in the world for you. I know that one of his concerns at the end was that all of his treatments were keeping him from being there for Annie and the boys. He didn’t want to go into the hospital again because it would take him away from them. But now he has gone, taking a piece of my heart, and millions of my stem cells.
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