On behalf of Jerry Johnson's family, I am saddened to share that Jerry passed away this week. I met Jerry in about 1965 hanging out with our cars on University Avenue in St. Paul, birthplace of the Minnesota Street Rod Association. There were about a dozen 'founding fathers' but only one MSRA # 1 who came to us with his idea of forming an association in 1967.
That was over 48 years ago and Jerry was a 'god father' to us along with a few dozen other avid rodders who felt a need to join all the St Paul and Minneapolis car clubs into one association. We never thought it would get to be over 300 and today MSRA has about 13,000 dues paying active members from all over the world.
Jerry spent about 15 years of his life working for NSRA with Joe Mayal running Street Scene magazine. When he retired to Arkansas to be near his sister, both health and financial issues plagued Jerry, but he made an annual pilgrimage to the world famous Back to the 50's Show every year.
Finally his health gave out and we all feel a very deep loss for the founding father of MSRA and inspiration for many other state associations to this day. A Jerry Johnson Memorial Fund is being set up shortly to pay for his funeral expenses and any excess money will find it's way to the appropriate charity.
--Respectfully Gary Magner MSRA L-193 and proud guest columnist for Hot Rod Hot Line
ETA: If you'd like to donate to these expenses, an account with Wells Fargo has been set up to do so. Please contact Gary Magner: [email protected] and he'll provide the account information.