David C. Johnson

COLUMBUS -- Grave side services for David C. Johnson, Columbus, who lived to see 69 years of life will be Wednesday at 2 pm at Trinity Cemetery #1 at rural Newman Grove. Pastor Tim White will officiate.

Visitation will be from 4-8 p.m. on Tuesday at Gass-Haney Funeral Home in Columbus and from 12-1:30 p.m. on Wednesday at the Newman Grove Memorial Funeral Home in Newman Grove.

Newman Grove Memorial Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.

David C. Johnson was born in Sioux Falls, S.D. on December 27, 1943 to Kenneth A. and Laurel (Jacobson) Johnson. He grew up in Columbus, graduating from Columbus High School in 1962. He went on to graduate from Augustana College in Sioux Falls, S.D. in 1966, majoring in biology and minored in German. That summer he embarked on a journey to Germany. He took a steamship from New York to Le Havre, France, and then a train to Paris and Munich. After a two month intensive course in the German Language at the Goethe-Institut in the Bavarian Alps, he began his studies in theology at the Augustana Hochschule in Neuendettelsau, Germany, a village between Nuremburg and Ansbach in northern Bavaria. These studies continued at the University of Heidelberg for 2 1/2 years, resulting in David having been in Germany for a total of 4 years and 3 months.

After a long re-adjustment period in the United States, David began a 25-year career at A. Glenn Kluck feedlots at Richland under the superb leadership, first of A. Glenn and then of Galen and Pam Kluck. Here he capitalized on his deep love of nature, his college biology major and his love of the outdoors and of the farm. These interests were kindled at an early age, just 10 years old, when his aunt married a farmer at Newman Grove.

David was a member of the Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbus, taught German as a substitute teacher and valiantly fought cancer for five years. After David experienced people in a different country, who spoke a different language, thought differently and saw the world differently than we do, as well as did things differently than we do in the United States, he found a new direction on life. This new direction was reaching out to people who attended other churches. In doing so he found a love for the reality of Christian unity, experiencing the manifold leadings of the Lord in this direction, he came to believe that all Christians with Christ in their heart are ONE, regardless of the church they attend. He felt very deeply that we should love, pray for, support and whenever possible, worship together with all our brothers and sisters, without regard to what church they attend.

He is survived by his brother, Gary W. Johnson and wife Leanne Alt of Owatonna, Minn. and sister Leanne Buss and husband Nigel of Norfolk.

Memorials are suggested to Trinity Lutheran Church, Platte Valley Humane Society, or Niobrara Valley Nature Preserve.