Emily Johnson

Emily Hoard Johnson, loving wife, mother, daughter, sister, and so much more, passed peacefully into eternity on August 2, 2023.  Her husband of more than 41 years, Bill (M. William) Johnson, was at her side when she passed, as was her first-born son William Lisle Johnson.

Emily Rosemary Hoard was born on December 30, 1955, in Berkeley, California, the first child of Dorothy (Goetz) and Donald Hoard.  The growing family lived in California and Wisconsin before moving to Los Alamos, New Mexico, when Emily was six years old.  She attended public schools there, graduating from Los Alamos High School in 1974.  She earned a degree in German Literature at the University of New Mexico in 1979, and after working at various positions in Los Alamos, in 1982 became an employee of Los Alamos National Laboratory, where she would remain until her retirement in 2015.

In 1981, she met Bill Johnson while on a Los Alamos Mountaineers trip to climb Wilson Peak and Mount Wilson in Colorado.  One thing led to another, and the pair were married in the Los Alamos Christian Church on July 25, 1982.  They soon settled in White Rock, where they would remain, hiking and climbing and skiing and caving together for the rest of her life.  During her White Rock years Emily gave birth to sons William Lisle Johnson (1984) and Peter Jacob Johnson (1987) and also earned a second degree from UNM, this one in Computer Science.  A taste of Emily’s love of the outdoors and understated toughness, the latter never something she acknowledged: a bare three weeks after giving birth to Peter, via crash-out C-section at that, she went caving in a wild, undeveloped and beautiful part (called “Silent Splendor”) of a cave in Colorado!  She would continue hiking and doing lightning and wildlife photography until her health no longer permitted it.

Emily also had a life-long interest in music, both as a listener and as a performer.  She was an All-State cellist in high school, and as an adult, sang in the Los Alamos Choral Society.  Furthermore, she had a longstanding interest in conservation and environmental causes, and contributed regularly to programs to aid the impoverished, particularly children. Her many-faceted personality will be missed by family, friends, and colleagues in numerous walks of life.

She is survived by her husband Bill; sons Will of Albuquerque, NM and Peter of Clackamas, OR (fiancée Hiroe Ito); brother Robin Hoard of Evergreen, CO (wife Oksana, children Caroline and Lindsay) and Matthew of Albuquerque; sister Allison DeForest of Kutztown, PA (husband Chris, daughter Mallory, son Beau); and numerous other relatives and friends.  Her parents and her sister Leslie preceded her in death.  The family has entrusted her mortal remains to DeVargas Funeral Home of Española; cremation has taken place and memorial arrangements are pending.  The family suggests that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the Ovarian Cancer Research Alliance, reachable at https://ocrahope.org/ , or to a cancer-related charity of the donor’s choice.