Robert T. Johnson

Robert T. "Bob" Johnson (December 20, 1924 - July 25, 2007), the first helicopter pilot in the Wyoming Army Guard, devoted some fifty-five years of his life to aviation. In addition to his helicopter skills, he was an airline station agent, a tower and flight service station operator, and a general aviation pilot. In 2004, he was inducted into the Wyoming Aviation Hall of Fame in Cheyenne.

"Handlebar" Johnson, as he was often known, was born in Chicago to Arthur Charles Johnson and the former Mattie Cavett. After the death of both parents, he and his brother were reared by an uncle and aunt in Bridgeport, the seat of Morrill County in western Nebraska.

In the spring of 1942, Johnson enlisted in the United States Navy and served on the destroyer USS McLanahan until December 1945. He was thereafter the station agent in Rawlins, Wyoming, and Greeley, Colorado, for Challenger Airlines, a forerunner to Frontier Airlines. Once enlisted in the Wyoming Army Guard, Johnson flew Army L-21 Cubs, Cessna L-19 Bird Dogs, L-20 Beavers, L-17 Navions and L-19s.

Johnson was employed by the Civil Aviation Agency (CAA), later the Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) as a flight service operator in Tucson, Arizona, but he returned to Wyoming in 1961 as an air traffic controller at the Combined Station Tower in Cheyenne.

After he retired from the control tower in 1980, he towed gliders at the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Sprngs and then the Owl Canyon Gliderport north of Fort Collins, Colorado. In the early 1990s, he was the conductor on the former Wyoming-Colorado Scenic Railroad, an excursion train which was based in Laramie, the seat of Albany County in southern Wyoming.

Johnson was a member of the Masonic lodge, the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the American Legion, the National Rifle Association, and the Cheyenne Rifle and Pistol Club.

Johnson was preceded in death by his parents; a son, Arthur "Buddy" Schmidt; and a daughter, Jacqueline Hutchinson. Survivors included his wife, Evalyn Johnson, whom he married in Cheyenne on December 2, 1966; his brother, Arthur Johnson and wife, Billie, of Bridgeport, Nebraska; three sons, Bobby Johnson and his wife, Natalie, of Denver, Gerry Schmidt and his wife, Robin, and Gene Schmidt and his wife, Rhonda, all of Cheyenne; two daughters, Jere Finley of Granby, Colorado, and Anne Schmidt of Cheyenne. He is also survived by nine grandchildren and thirteen great-grandchildren.

Johnson died of a sudden illness at Cheyenne Regional Medical Center. Services were held on July 26 at the First Presbyterian Church in Cheyenne.

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