Christopher Miles Johnson

Christopher Miles Johnson Beloved son of Dr. Brian and Joan Johnson and brother of Derek and Kaitlin Johnson, was born November 7, 1984 at Stanford Hospital. He lived with his parents in the San Mateo Highlands for three years before moving to Hillsborough, where he lived the rest of his life, other than college. He attended South Elementary School, Crocker Middle School, and Crystal Springs Uplands High School in Hillsborough before heading off to Emory University in Atlanta where he spent two years before taking a hiatus to work for Habitat For Humanity. Last year he transferred to UC Berkeley, where he had just finished his junior year, majoring in economics. Chris was a precocious child, discovering the Audubon Society Field Guides in preschool and reading through all of them by third grade. A lifelong lover of nature, he had plans to visit the Galapagos Islands after graduation, and his last passion was downloading and sharing with us the BBC series on Planet Earth. He also developed an intuitive skill with computers, both software and hardware, and was in demand amongst his family and the local community to fix computer problems and establish wireless networks. He worked multiple summers beginning at age 14 for local technology companies, initially without pay until after a few weeks they determined he was doing work equal to tenured employees, and figured they needed to pay him. Two weeks ago he completely disassembled and reassembled an HP laptop, in order to improve its functioning. Above all, Christopher had a heart of gold, recognized by all. He was universally kind and modest, and merely laughed when total strangers with increasing frequency would tell him that he bore a striking resemblance to Tom Cruise. He deeply loved his family, and all loved him. Saturday, June 9 while on a motorcycle ride through the Santa Cruz Mountains Chris was struck by a car and killed. Our only solace is that at the time of his death he was the happiest and most confident he'd ever been, and was looking forward to the future with hope and excitement. He will leave an unfillable void in the hearts of all whose lives he touched. A celebration of his life will be held this Sunday at 6 PM at the Coyote Point Museum in San Mateo. Please begin arriving at 5:30 PM, as parking may be difficult. All who loved him are invited. Gifts in memory of Christopher Johnson to the Coyote Point Museum, 1651 Coyote Point Dr., San Mateo, CA 94401; or Audubon Society (www.audubonsociety.org) will be greatly appreciated and very appropriate, given his life's passion.