Bro. Gary Johnson our newest State Deputy

Excerpt from the Western Catholic Reporter:

http://wcr.ab.ca/WCRThisWeek/Stories/tabid/61/entryid/903/Default.aspx 

 

New state deputy transformed by faith

Gary Johnson will become state deputy of the Alberta Knights of Columbus on July 1.

WCR PHOTO | RAMON GONZALEZ

Gary Johnson will become
state deputy of the Alberta
Knights of Columbus on July 1.

May 9, 2011
RAMON GONZALEZ
WESTERN CATHOLIC REPORTER

Gary Johnson of St. Albert is the new leader of the 17,000 Knights of Columbus in Alberta and the Northwest Territories.

Johnson, 64, was elected state deputy at the Knights’ convention in Calgary April 29 to May 1. He was state secretary prior to the election.

About 500 people, including voting delegates and guests, attended the convention and banquet at the Coast Plaza Hotel and Conference Centre.

Johnson, who ran unopposed for the top post, replaces Neil Gannon of Edmonton.

“I’m very humbled,” he said. “The fact that no one ran against me made me feel very good.”

Elected to the state board along with Johnson were Bill Smith as state secretary, Charles Russell as state treasurer, Ron Schuster as state advocate and Vince Reyes as state warden.

Born in Prince Albert, Sask., Johnson’s family moved to Edmonton in 1953 and he has lived in the Edmonton area for the past 58 years, with the exception of 1989-91, when he lived in Oshawa, Ont.

In 1972, he met Evelyn Blais, a French Canadian who was also born in Saskatchewan. They married and raised three children, Michelle, Ann-Marit and Kristoffer. Now Johnson has three grandsons.

Unfortunately, after a courageous six-year battle with cancer, Evelyn died in November 2007, just a month before what would have been the couple’s 35th anniversary.