Harold Richard Johnson (1919-1981)

Picture of Harold Richard Johnson

Harold Johnson as a machinist

Individual Facts

• Name: Harold Richard Johnson
• Sex: Male
• Also Known As: Hal
• Birth: 21 Jun 1919, Tonawanda, Erie, New York, USA
• Death: 4 Jul 1981, Spring Valley, San Diego, California, USA

Birthplace: Tonawanda, NY

Harold Richard Johnson was born on 21 Jun 1919 in Tonawanda, New York, a busy industrial town near Buffalo along the Erie Canal and Niagara River. At that time, many local families depended on factory, rail, and shipping work, and daily life centered on home, church, and close neighborhood ties.

He was born just after World War I at the end of the Spanish flu epidemic, during a period when the nation was returning to peacetime and many modern conveniences were still limited.

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Tonawanda, NY

Biographical information

Dad graduated from North Tonawanda High School in 1936. He did well in school, and could have gone to college, but because of the Great Depression of the 30s, going to college was not an option.

After high school he worked in Tonawanda at Spaulding Fibre, one of the biggest employers in the area. He worked his way up to become a machinist and master tool and die maker. He used to brag that he “could operate any machine on the shop floor!”

Harold married my mother, Lillian Moseley, in 1939 at end of the Great Depression. They were high school sweethearts. When they were first married, they lived in a room with my grandparents, Alfred and Eva Johnson, on Kiel Street in NorthTonawanda.

When he lived in New York, Harold was the Grand Master of his Masonic lodge and chief of the Brighton Volunteer fire company in Tonawanda.

Harold was a life-long sports fan, especially boxing, wrestling and football.

Harold(rear right) and Lillian(front right) at the firehall in 1949

California career summary:

On arrival in 1951 he went to work for a contract tool and die machine shop in El Cajon with his brother Kenny.

Later he worked at Ryan Aeronautical. He started as a tool and die maker, and then became a shop foreman and eventually building superintendent. At one time he had several hundred people reporting to him. Unfortunately, Ryan went through one of those typical slumps that aerospace companies experience so often, and my father ended up having to supervise the layoff of many people in his area. Having to do that hit him very hard. He was still at Ryan until just before I graduated from high school in 1960. After Ryan, he worked at Rohr Aircraft.

Shared Facts

• Marriage: (Lillian Elizabeth Moseley) 23 Nov 1939, Tonawanda, Erie, New York, USA
• Children: 3

Harold and Lillian wedding, 1939

Relationships

• Father: Alfred Peter Charles Johnson (1893-1956)
• Mother: Eva Irene Robins (1898-1993)
• Spouse: Lillian Elizabeth Moseley (1918-1996)
• Child: Susan (Susie) Johnson (stillborn 1941)
• Child: Richard Harold Johnson (1942-)
• Child: Karen Lee Johnson (1945-2023)

For more information

Additional resources from our family history knowledge base (books, papers, web posts, and records): For more information