Dwight L. JOHNSTON

JOHNSTON, WARD, BONDERMAN, STAMER

Posted By: Sarah Thorson Little (email)
Date: 7/11/2010 at 14:15:24

The Garner Leader & Signal - Iowa
June 9, 2004

Word has been received of the death of Dwight L. Johnston, 82, of Grinnell, on Tuesday, June 1, 2004, at the Mayflower Home Health Care Center. Funeral services were held on Saturday, June 5, at the United Methodist Church in Grinnell. The Rev. Len Eberhart officiating. Interment was in the Hazelwood Cemetery in Grinnell. The Smith Funeral Home of Grinnell was in charge of the arrangements.

Mr. Johnston was born on November 23, 1921, on a farm near Paullina, to Claude and Hazle Johnston. He attended a country school at Dale Township #5 in O'Brien County, Paullina High School and the State University of Iowa, where he received a Bachelor of Science Degree in Chemical Engineering in 1942. He joined the research and development organization of Shell Oil Company at graduation. He was united in marriage to Elsie M. Ward on July 11, 1945, at the Klemme United Methodist Church. At his retirement in 1984, he held the position of senior staff research engineer at Shell Oil. His work locations included Los Angeles, San Francisco and Emeryville, in California, with brief assignments in the Netherlands, England and Mexico. From 1942 to 1963, he was engaged in the economic evaluation and design of oil refining and manufacturing processes. He designed ethyl chloride plants near Chester, England and Coatzacoalcos, Mexico, and a hydrogen peroxide plant near Norco, Louisiana. From 1963 to 1984, he led a group engaged in the development of computer tools for the design and optimization of manufacturing processes. He holds a patent for the manufacture of pivalic acid. From 1978 to 1982, he was on an advisory board at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology at Boston for a major United States Department of Energy Project. Upon retirement in Grinnell, he was active in Main Street Grinnell, Grinnell 2000, Grinnell Renaissance, Kiwanis, Second Mile, and at Mayflower Homes. He was an active church member throughout his life and was a member of the Grinnell United Methodist Church.

He is survived by his wife, Elsie Johnston of Grinnell; and two sons, Bruce Johnston of Albany, California and Clarke Johnston of Vallejo, California; one brother, William Johnston of Chula Vista, California; two sisters, Joan Bonderman of McKenna, Washington and Carolyn Stamer of Escondido, California. He was preceded in death by his daughter, Laura Ann; and his brother, Vernon Johnston.