![\"\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/Ray-Johnson-2.jpg\")
Johnson, who spent a good deal of his career in Illinois,\nretired as the Manager of the Chicago Office of the Illinois Department of\nTransportation\u2019s Division of Aeronautics, a career position he held for 34\nyears (1958\u20131992). Among his responsibilities was the State\u2019s interest in\nvolunteer aviation organizations and the enhancement of aviation education\nactivities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jim Bildilli, who worked with Johnson for 25 years at the Division and for several more after he retired, said Johnson was a Flight Safety Coordinator handling the 6 counties around Chicago and started the Ray Johnson Civil Air Patrol (CAP) flight encampment (which was eventually named after Johnson), at Coles County Memorial Airport (MTO). \u00c2\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHe was the Illinois liaison to the CAP and attended nearly\neverything that the CAP did in Illinois and nationally,\u201d said Bildilli. \u201cRay\nwas a unique individual and totally dedicated to all things aviation.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Following his retirement in Illinois, Johnson moved to\nPrescott, AZ in 1994, and continued an active role in both aviation and\naviation education which included Chairman, of the National Aeronautic Association\u2019s\n(NAA) Education Committee and NAA Delegate to the FAI. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Johnson was a recipient of numerous awards and honors,\nincluding NAA\u2019s Frank G. Brewer Trophy, the Nile Gold Medal and the Paul\nTissandier Diploma from the FAI.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In receiving the Brewer Trophy in 1994, Johnson was\nrecognized \u201cfor nearly a half-century of leadership and innovation in\naviation and aerospace education at all levels, kindergarten through\nuniversity. His pioneering leadership has been demonstrated at the local\ncommunity level, as well as state, regional, national and international levels.\nHis work involved stimulating volunteers in Civil Air Patrol’s programs as well\nas educators at all grade levels and curricular areas. He is also recognized as\nan author and editor.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Johnson held a Commercial Pilots Certificate with Airplane,\nGlider, and Hot Air Balloon ratings and held a World Flight Record. His initial\nflight training was with the WWII Army Air Corps as a flight engineer in the\nB-29. He previously held a leadership role with several organizations including\npositions as President or Board member of the Chicago Association Forum, the\nBalloon Federation of America, the Soaring Society of America, and the National\nCoalition for Aviation and Space Education (NCASE). <\/p>\n\n\n\n Rol Murrow, NCASE President was saddened at the news that the Coalition\u2019s longtime colleague, friend, confidant, and mentor had passed away. \u201cHe contributed so much to the world of aviation, especially to aviation education and the Civil Air Patrol, during his long career,\u201d said Murrow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ray was born on September 23rd<\/sup>, 1925 in Duluth, MN\nand graduated from the University of Minnesota with degrees in Business\nAdministration and Industrial Engineering. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHe will be sorely missed,\u201d said Bildilli. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On Tuesday, April 7, 2020, Raymond J. Johnson passed away at the age of 94. Throughout his lifetime, Johnson left his mark on aviation, literally around the world through his involvement with state aviation, the Civil Air Patrol, the Federation Aeronautique Internationale (FAI) and many other organizations. Johnson, who spent a good deal of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,23,114],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arizona","category-illinois","category-international-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15207"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15207\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15214,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15207\/revisions\/15214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/Ray-Johnson-edit-1024x693.jpg\")
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