George Taylor "Jerry" Johnston III

George Taylor “Jerry” Johnston III, 84, passed away at home in San Diego on June 5, 2026, with his wife of 60 years, Linda, at his side. His life was a testament to the power of curiosity, perseverance, and quiet generosity. He was born on April 17, 1942, in Princeton, West Virginia, a coal town, and like the Rocket Boys, he grew up fascinated with physics, rockets, and the myriad scientific and technological innovations sparked by the space race.

Jerry secured a Ham Radio license by the age of 12 and his First Class Radiotelephone Operator’s License at 14. That year was also when he spent one memorable week keeping a television relay station’s programs broadcasting while the boss was on vacation. While a student at Charleston High School, he made a pact with three friends to get a PhD in physics, and he took pride in being the only one to achieve the goal. It was during his graduate work at Michigan State University in the early 1960s that he fell in love with a fellow student, Linda McClelland of Michigan. They were married in 1966.

Jerry began his professional career as a postdoctoral fellow at Brown University in 1967. A few years later he became an Assistant Professor of Physics at the University of Dayton, during which time he added an MBA to his portfolio. He transitioned to program management in the early days of developing lasers for missile defense systems, and spent the last 22 years of his career at Optical Coating Lab in Santa Rosa, California, supervising the coating process for a variety of strategic high-performance optical projects. He took special pride in managing the coating project for the lenses in the Chandra X-ray Observatory, a telescope that was launched into space in 1999. For his work, he received the NASA Public Service Medal in 2000.

Outside of work hours, Jerry enjoyed playing golf, sampling the bounty of Sonoma County’s vineyards, traveling to other countries, following the stock market, and spending time with his family. He was a generous donor to people and organizations he and Linda believed in, and he enthusiastically supported Linda’s primary hobbies and interests. Some of his major outlets in the past decade included counting and raising Monarch butterflies, being tech support for her embroidery and quilting projects, and collecting blue ribbons for flowers shown in the local Garden Club event. He is survived and remembered by his wife; his son Chet and wife Tammy; his daughter Jill and husband Jason; and his grandchildren, Hugo and Colin.