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The Rev. Ernest F. Johnson Sr, 94, a retired associate member, died Jan. 15, 2013 in Baltimore. The Rev. Timothy West officiated at his Homegoing Service at Westphalia UMC in Upper Marlboro Jan. 22. Bishop Forest Stith gave the eulogy.  Assisting in the service were the Revs. Robert E. Slade, B. Kevin Smalls, Karen Jones, Antoine Love, Louis Shockey and District Superintendent Ianther Mills. The Rev. Daryl Williams presided at the interment in the Christ UMC cemetery in Aquasco.

Ernest F. Johnson was born in Washington, D.C., March 17, 1919, the son of the late Eugene and Chole Johnson. He had 13 siblings. He attended public schools in Prince Georges County. As a young man he attended Brooks Methodist Church, which later became Nottingham-Myers UMC.

He received his call to ministry while working in a tobacco field in Croom, Maryland, where he first heard the voice of God letting him know that ministry would be his calling. He earned his certificate for ministry in the Methodist Church at Pastoral College in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. 

Johnson served churches in the Baltimore-Washington Conference from 1946 to 1984 when he retired. He served CME churches in Salem, Va., and Aquasco, Md. until 1966. He was then appointed to the four churches on the Sykesville Charge (Saint Luke, White Rock, Johnsville and Mt. Gregory UMCs), which he served until his retirement in 1984. He had a disability leave in 1979.

Johnson served as a chaplain in the prison camp in Hughesville for nearly 10 years, during which time he developed a prison choir that often sang off site.

In the late 1960s Johnson discovered families a few blocks from his home, who lived in squalid conditions on School House Road in Sykesville, including houses that had been condemned 30 years earlier. Johnson sought to eradicate the poverty and near inhuman conditions that oppressed them. With his leadership, the families incorporated into an association called “The School House Road Developers, Inc.”  Although this project was very unpopular with politicians and the community of Sykesville, he and the School House Road group pushed on knowing it was the right thing to do for God’s people. In 1981 his vision became a reality when he dedicated this project of 26 town homes costing over $1.8 million.

Johnson left a long list of awards, accomplishments and recognition. Among them are: Appreciation Award for service to the March on Washington in August 1963; the Harry Hosier Award for outstanding and dedicated service from the Concerned Black United Methodist Preachers, November 1983; Morgan State University’s Honorary Alumnus  Award for exceptional meritorious community service and visionary leadership, May 1997; and the Governor’s Citation from the State of Maryland, June 1998.

Johnson met his soul mate, Mary Elizabeth “Lizzie”, when she was walking to work in Croom. They married in 1937, celebrated their 50^th anniversary in 1988 and their 60^th 10 years later. They had seven children, five of whom survive. She died in June 2002, after 64 years of marriage. 

After retirement the Johnsons called New Mt. Zion Center of Hope UMC in Ellicott City their church home, until her passing in 2001.

Two sons, Lawrence Phillip and James Weldon, predeceased him.

Survivors include Effie Dixon, Lillian Viola Johnson, Mary Magdalene Johnson, Ernest F. Johnson Jr. and Deborah Diane; eight grandchildren and 19 great-grandchildren. One brother also survives.

Condolences may be sent to Effie Dixon, 5911 Falkirk Road, Baltimore, MD 21239.

His life was dedicated to God, family and servicing God’s people. His mission was completed on January 15, 2013.It can be said that his good deeds will live on.