Harold Leon Johnson
July 3, 1946 – July 30, 2026
Harold Leon Johnson passed away peacefully at his home on July 30, 2026, at the age of 80.
He was born July 3, 1946, in Yuma, Arizona, to Leon Johnson and Dorothy Pauline Pendley Johnson. Harold’s childhood was a hard one. His family moved constantly and often lived in their car, and he was a sickly child with severe asthma that kept him out of school so often he graduated several years late. He entered foster care at about fourteen. He learned to fight hard to breathe, to think a lot about everything, and to make things with his hands because he couldn’t play most of the time.
In the high desert of California he found three things that changed the course of his life: the missionaries of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Goodman family — his last foster family, and lifelong friends — and a girl named Christa Busby. Harold and Christa were married August 4, 1967, in the Los Angeles Temple, four days short of fifty-nine years before his passing. He often called her his angel.
Harold was an artist who could draw anything, make anything, invent many things, and fix anything. He turned that gift into a career in aerospace, beginning as a technical illustrator with Lockheed Martin and advancing to Design Engineer with Northrop Grumman, where he worked on the B-2 bomber before retiring in 2010. He designed and built multiple houses. For years he drove two hours a day so his family could live where the air was clean.
He was passionate about science, politics, UFOs, and Bigfoot, and he was never shy about explaining exactly how he thought things ought to be. He taught his children and grandchildren to question, to think for themselves, to love the stars and the unknown. He taught his daughters they were equal to any man. He saw all of them as his little ones, even when they were adults.
Harold found God in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and served in many callings until his health failed in 2016 and he could no longer attend. He looked forward to his eternal family.
Above all, Harold broke the cycle he was born into. He became the dependable, loving father his own childhood had denied him. He loved his family so much because his own was so fractured growing up.
Harold is survived by his wife, Christa; his sister, Ruby Rawlings; his children Hal Johnson, Penny Jones (Derrick), Stephanie Adams (Kris), Ron Johnson (Aubree), Elizabeth Carbine (James), Valerie Johnson, and Sean Johnson; and eleven grandchildren and their spouses. He was preceded in death by his parents.
Funeral services will be held Saturday, August 8, 2026, at 11:00 a.m. at the LDS chapel, 5369 N. Aberdeen Lane, Stansbury Park, Utah 84074. Interment will follow at Stansbury Park Cemetery, 132 Brigham Road, Stansbury Park, Utah 84074. There will be no public viewing.
He loved his family most, then airplanes and politics. He will be greatly missed and forever loved.
