Francis Claiborne Johnston Jr.

1943 - 2025

Francis Claiborne Johnston, Jr.

January 6, 1943 - March 31, 2025

Francis Claiborne Johnston, Jr., known throughout his life as "Jay," age 82, a lifelong resident of Richmond, died peacefully March 31, 2025, at the William M. Dunlap Center at Transitions LifeCare in Raleigh, North Carolina. He was the son of the late Francis Claiborne Johnston and Virginia Williams Johnston of Richmond. A devoted husband, father and grandfather, he is survived by his wife of 54 years, Carolyn Hooper Satterfield Johnston, two children, a daughter, Angier Williams Johnston Miller and her husband, Robert Alexander Miller III, of Raleigh, North Carolina, a son, Francis Claiborne Johnston III and his wife, Caroline Carter Hancock Johnston, of Richmond, and four grandchildren, Alexander Johnston Miller, Virginia Archer Johnston, Francis Claiborne Johnston IV, and Jane Spotswood Johnston. He was an attorney for his entire professional career with the Richmond law firm of Mays & Valentine and its successor firm, Atlanta-based Troutman Sanders LLP. He joined Mays & Valentine in 1968, and became a partner in 1972. He was a partner for 37 years before assuming a senior counsel role with Troutman Sanders in 2009. He specialized in corporate, securities, banking and corporate finance law, serving as counsel to a number of Virginia-based corporations and financial institutions and later in his career to many national and global investment banking firms as underwriters' counsel. He was recognized for many years by a variety of peer organizations and publications as a leading attorney in his areas of practice. Jay was a graduate of Douglas Southall Freeman High School, a magna cum laude graduate of Princeton University, where he was a member and president of the University Cottage Club, and a graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law. He served in the U.S. Coast Guard Reserve from 1967-1973. He was a lifelong member of First Presbyterian Church where he served numerous terms as a deacon, elder and trustee, and for over 40 years as a director of the First Presbyterian Church Endowment Fund and over 20 years as its president. In 2023, he was elected Elder Emeritus of First Presbyterian Church. In 2012, in connection with the 200th anniversary of the founding of First Presbyterian Church, he collaborated with R. Jackson Sadler, a former pastor of First Church, in the publication of "Footprints of the Saints: A Narrative History of First Presbyterian Church, Richmond, Virginia, 1812-2012." Jay was a member of the Richmond, Virginia and American Bar Associations, as well as the Bar Association of the City of New York. He was a member of the Executive Committee and a past-president of the Virginia Bar Association. He was a fellow of both the Virginia Law Foundation and the American Bar Foundation, and a life member of the American Law Institute. He served in the House of Delegates of the American Bar Association from 1992 to 1998. He was a member of the board of directors of Eskimo Pie Corporation and served on the boards of Westminster-Canterbury Corporation, Westminster-Canterbury Foundation and Westminster Presbyterian Homes, Inc. He also was a long-time member of the board of directors and president of the Historic Polegreen Church Foundation. He also was a past director of the Valentine Museum and a former member and past chair of the Board of the Library of Virginia (formerly Virginia State Library and Archives), having been appointed to one five-year term by Republican Governor George Allen and to a successive five-year term by Democratic Governor Mark Warner. He was a member of the Board of the Friends of the Virginia State Archives and a member of the Friends of the Princeton University Library. He was a member and past president of the Sons of the Revolution in the State of Virginia, a life member and past Governor of the Society of Colonial Wars in the State of Virginia, and a member of the Jamestowne Society. He was a member emeritus of the Richmond German. He was also a member of the Country Club of Virginia, the Commonwealth Club and Farmington Country Club. Jay was an avid reader and book collector and an interested student of family history who authored a number of volumes on his own family and related families. He collaborated with the late Mrs. A. C. Hollis Hallet of Bermuda in the publication of a volume that is still considered the definitive volume of the earliest birth, marriage, death and will records of the Bahamas. He authored a variety of other family history articles and papers, and was a contributing author for the Library of Virginia's Dictionary of Virginia Biography. He was a 62 year member of the Virginia Historical Society (now the Virginia Museum of History and Culture) and also was a longtime member and supporter of a number of other national, state and local historical and genealogical societies.

A graveside service will be held at Hollywood Cemetery on Tuesday, April 29, 2025, at 11 o'clock in the morning with The Reverend Stephanie Hamilton officiating. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to the First Presbyterian Church Endowment Fund, 4602 Cary Street Road, Richmond, Virginia, 23226, or a charity of choice.