Stephen Johnson:
CLASS OF 1978
Bayside High SchoolClass of 1978
Virginia beach, VA
Stephen's Story
Hi everyone :) Maddie (Steve's daughter) here. For those of you that may be interested in what Steve did after high school, I wrote out a short summary based off his résumé if anyone would like to read.
After high school, he went to Virginia Tech for a BS in Aerospace Engineering, graduating in 1982, followed by taking engineering management courses at the University of Maryland in 1985. He then got his job with the Department of Defense, where he became the Assistant Project Manager for Surface Electronic Warfare Training Ranges, Naval Air Systems Command, Washington DC. Then the Project Manager for the Mobile Electronic Warfare Simulator/Hostile Air Defense System Simulator Program, Naval Air Systems Command, Washington, DC. (Nov '82-Sep '85). Following this, he was in California at China Lake as the Deputy Program Manager for the REWS Program / Electronics engineer ('85-'89). Then he became the Program Manager for the Range Electronics Warfare Simulator (REWS) Program as well as Project Manager/System Engineer for the AN/FSQ-T22 Electronic Combat Environment Analyzer/Simulator. Both at the Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division (NAWCWPNS), China Lake, CA in the Combat Environment Simulation Division ('89-'00). Around this time, in 1999, he flew back to Virginia to help his brother, Jimmy, pack up the house after his mom passed away. My maternal grandparents were neighbors to my paternal grandparents, so after hearing about Teddy's passing, my mom's mom was like, "Susan, go say hi to the neighbors, and try to get Steve out the house." My mom immediately turned the idea down, as 20 years prior, my mom had a pet kitten who was once playing in the yard until my dad's pet snake started chasing it trying to kill it. She pretty much went off yelling at him while bringing her kitten inside and didn't speak to him after that. So, she pretty much said, "Absolutely not. His snake tried to kill my cat." So her mom said "Susan, his mom just died. Just be nice, maybe get him to go play pool or something. I'm not asking you to marry him." She ended up going next door, and my dad opened the door wearing daisy duke booty shorts, a fishnet shirt, a gold hoop earring, and a pony tail. They dated for 2 months, got engaged, were engaged for 7 months, got ...Expand for more
married, and found out they were pregnant with me 2 months later. He was still working at China Lake in California at the time, so they still had to do long distance at the beginning of the marriage. However, he began applying for jobs back here in VA since my mom wanted to stay here, and he landed his job as an Aerospace Engineer at NASA's Langley Research Center. I don't have a ton of info as to what he did there as either he didn't create a résumé for that, or I haven't been able to find it. However, I do know he was given multiple awards, such as: Superior Accomplishment Award for his Significant Contributions to the Agency Decadal Planning Team in '01, a Performance Award for Outstanding Leadership as the Senior Systems Engineer for Strategy for the NASA Exploration Team in '02, a Performance Award for Superior Support to the NASA Space Architect Team and the Space Architect Systems Engineering Team in '04. I also reached out to a few of his old coworkers, and one from NASA said, "Hi Maddie, Thanks for reaching out. I do remember your dad. I was the assistant branch head of the Space Mission Analysis Branch at the time he passed. I worked your dad as part of the NASA Exploration Team (NExT). You can read about the work we did in the NASA eBook titled: Origins of 21st-Century Space Travel - NASA." I haven't read that yet as this has all taken quite an emotional toll on me, however I do find myself being mind blown each time I hear about anything he did. Obviously this was a rather short, quick summary due to my limited knowledge since he passed on December 27th, 2005, which was 5 days after my 5th birthday, so I don't have many memories of his career aside from the time we sat in front of the TV to watch a rocket launch when he told me he could've gone but he would've missed me too much.
I think my dad is the coolest person to ever exist, and I miss him a lot. I really appreciate hearing about any stories/memories people have about him, and I'd love any photos anyone possibly has of/with him. My biggest goal during this has been finding a voice recording/video of him eventually. Feel free to message me to see a Reddit post where a bunch of strangers came together to help me find info on him if you want :) (it won't let me post links)
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