Brandon Robert Johnson

1980 - 2024

News story
By Mike Sigov
Blade staff writer

Brandon Robert Johnson of Deshler, Ohio, a prominent Northwest Ohio entrepreneur and philanthropist, died Dec. 5 at ProMedica Toledo Hospital. He was 44.

He died of injuries suffered in a car crash, his sister Bobby Jo Raftery said.

Mr. Johnson was the founder, owner, president, and CEO of Team Johnson Limo and Charter; Johnson Trucking, Team Johnson Truck Wash, and Team Johnson Storage, all in Delta, Ohio.

Those who knew him describe him as a giver.

"He never shied away from giving," said Patrick McCarty, a friend and former business partner. He emphasized that Mr. Johnson helped not only the beneficiaries of his charitable projects but also his employees, business associates, and friends.

"And he always had the next idea," Mr. McCarty said. "He was never content to just let things kind of be the way they were. He was always thinking of the next big and best idea."

For the past 18 years, Mr. Johnson led a Christmas giving program, delivering gifts and treats of various kinds to children and families at homes across the region. The gifts were distributed from Toledo and Bowling Green to Malinta, Ohio, and Pemberville, Ohio, just before Christmas and with the help of volunteers whom he recruited from the clients, partners, and small businesses he worked with daily.

For the past eight years, he also held gift-giving events for children at the Family House shelter.

Mr. Johnson was 18 when in 1998, he started his own business, Johnson Trucking, in Monclova Township with one dump truck.

By the time the company moved to Delta in 2015, he had grown it into one of the largest dump truck companies in northwest Ohio, with 68 trucks, said Mrs. Raftery, who is vice president of all four companies.

In 2016, he started Team Johnson Limo and Charter in Delta, known in the Toledo area for its work transporting local workers to rural job sites, and for its trolley that delivers holiday gifts to families in need.

Later that year, he started Team Johnson Truck Wash, and then came Team Johnson Storage in 2021, both in Delta. The original company, Johnson Trucking, now also in Delta, kept its name.

'I want to make miracles'

In the past few years, a red trolley bus could be seen in Toledo and the outlying areas just before Christmas.

It was a Team Johnson vehicle delivering gifts.

Dressed in a bright red suit jacket, Mr. Johnson served as the master of ceremonies role at each of the house visits.

In 2021, he told The Blade he saved money from his companies every month to donate to put into the Christmas giving programs.

"Our youth is everything. I want to make miracles because I couldn't imagine being a kid myself and not having Christmas," he said at the time. "So I make it my job, and I know a lot of people and I have a lot of businesses that help."

The stories behind each family fueled the motivation that kept him going, he said.

"We have stops with some really sad stories," Mr. Johnson said. "We have a dad that got murdered, a mom that then tried to kill herself, so now Grandma, who has cancer, is in charge. We have a dad that just passed away and left three kids. We have eight big stories.

"At this time of year, when you have someone pass away or someone that is sick and dying and a little kid that wants to go to Disney, I make it my job to ensure that that happens. All of these people that chip in are the reason that happens."

Mr. McCarty remembered volunteering for the program alongside Mr. Johnson in December, 2021, visiting a half a dozen families before the latter announced that there was a surprise waiting.

"And we end the day over at the Yark dealership, and we walk inside, and right there is this brand new 2022 Jeep Gladiator with my logo right on the side," Mr. McCarty said.

"He paid for the two-year lease for that, for me to have this awesome vehicle to drive," Mr. McCarty said. "It was just sort of his way of saying, 'Thanks for everything you've done for me. Here's my way of thanking you.' It was just absolutely incredible. I had tears in my eyes. I was bawling like a baby."

Born March 28, 1980, in Toledo to Rebecca and Robert Johnson, Mr. Johnson was raised in the Swanton area, graduating from Swanton High School in 1998. He later got an associate's degree in business from Owens Community College.

Family members said he had an entrepreneurial spirit from young age - at least since elementary school - when he bought penny gum and sold it for a profit.

When his father, Robert Johnson, died in 2012, he quickly became "a man of the house," said his mother, Rebecca Johnson.

"We didn't have a lot growing up, but our mother and our father were very giving people that always thought of others, and they just didn't have the means to provide as much help as Brandon [later] did," Mrs. Raftery said.

"So, it was important to him [to do so] when he was successful," she said. "He always said, 'When I do good, other people do good.' And he always wanted to take care of not just the family, but our workers, too. ... If any of our employees were in hardship, he would give them money. He had paid for bills and credit cards and multiple things."

Mrs. Johnson said her son taught a lot of other people to think of others before thinking of themselves.

"He came from nowhere, and it was just his ... generosity that caused people to jump on board with us," she said about volunteering. "If they go with us one time, they're in the next year, when they see the feeling it gives you."

When asked what memory of her son stands out the most, she said a teacher "who called us and said that one of the students said that they were at a very special Christmas party, with food and pizza and presents and the Santas."

When asked what that student meant by the Santas, she recalled the teacher quoting the student as saying: "Well, there was two of them. One was like the guy that dresses up with the beard and everything, and the other one was the real one, in the red jacket."

"That was my son that [he was talking about,]" Mrs. Johnson said. "That sticks in my mind that he went out even when we didn't have our Christmas plan. It was all about the people he wanted to help, and it just went over and over and over again."

His wife of nearly 15 years, Stefanie Johnson, said "his generosity knew no bounds."

"He loved his children and his family, and he would do anything to make sure that we were taken care of. And he never met a stranger. And I just can't emphasize enough what a generous man he was."

In his free time, Mr. Johnson enjoyed being with his family, particularly playing golf, cards, and traveling, especially on cruise ships.

"There was never a dull moment with him," his wife said. "He was always looking for the next adventure."

Along with his wife, Stefanie Johnson, surviving are his children, Landon, Whitney, Maddox, and Peyton Johnson; his mother, Rebecca Johnson; and sisters, Bobby Jo Raftery and Brittany Stevens.

Visitation will be from noon to 7 p.m. Saturday at Feehan-Rodenberger Funeral Home, Deshler.

Funeral services will begin at 1:30 p.m. Sunday at the Patrick Henry High School in Hamler, Ohio, with a Celebration of Life ceremony immediately following at 6 p.m. at the Bavarian Haus, Deshler.