Leif Melvin Johnson

Leif Melvin Johnson August 12, 1953 - August 30, 2013 Leif M. Johnson passed away on August 30 in Grand Junction, Colorado. Leif was born in East Lansing, Michigan to Herbert Eric Johnson and Margaret Lois Riddle Johnson. He came of age in the mid-70s at the Grand Canyon, where he honed his sales and marketing skills. Talents which he used to promote such lovely places as Mammoth Mountain, California, West Yellowstone, Montana, Lake Powell, Arizona/Utah, and most recently Palisade and Grand Junction, Colorado. In 1982, Leif married Pam Lewis of Callahan, Florida, on the rim of the Grand Canyon. Unwavering in her support, devotion and respect, Pam stood beside Leif for 31 years of good times and travails. Already a good man, Leif became an outstanding man with Pam at his side. He was possibly the greatest ambassador the Colorado Plateau has known since John Wesley Powell. In a career spanning four decades, whether he was pitching hotel rooms by promoting the glories and wonders of the Grand Canyon or pushing Palisade peaches to anyone who would listen, Leif never tired of extolling the virtues and natural wonders of the Plateau. Leif combined his love of nature and his unquenchable thirst for knowledge with an insatiable appetite for exploration, a pursuit into which most of his friends and acquaintances were enlisted at one time or another. Above all he loved floating the western rivers in his trusty yellow boat with his faithful hound in the bow. Leif never knew a stranger. Business associates became friends, friends became comrades, and comrades become brothers. He was fond of saying, "Take care of your friends; they're all you've got." The man may be gone, but it will be a long time before the spirit and memory of Leif is lost and forgotten in the purple shadows of some bend in a lonely canyon deep in the Colorado Plateau. Leif is survived by Pam; his daughter, Katrina Britt (Forrest) Daniels; two grandchildren, Victor and Svaya Daniels; a sister, Karen Jones of Billings, Montana; a brother, Swen (Joyce) Johnson of Grand Canyon, Arizona, and his loyal and long-suffering golden retriever Flicka. A memorial service is planned for Sunday, September 22, 2013, at 2:00 p.m. at Bookcliff Baptist Church, 2702 Patterson Road, Grand Junction, Colorado. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions can be made in Leif's name to Goose Liver, Inc. care of Tangi Stock, 613 Cottage Meadows Court, Grand Junction, CO 81504.