Betty Jo Gigot, Editor and Publisher

In the May 1992 issue of CALF News I began a series of articles about Fred Johnson with, “Never ask Fred Johnson his opinion if you don’t want to know. From bricks, to ceramics and banking, to commercial bulls and Certified Angus Beef, Johnson has given no quarter to dissenters through the years, but no one can question his intelligence or integrity.”

Definitely an achiever
That side of Fred was tough and tenacious and I have a file of typed letters on his letterhead telling me just where I “might have gone wrong” in some of my thinking. I would be willing to bet that I’m not the only one with one of those files. None who knew him doubt that Fred used his traits as a respected and forceful leader in the livestock industry to accomplish phenomenal feats. Those feats, in turn, brought him honors such as the prestigious Saddle & Sirloin Club’s Gallery Hall of Fame for his “outstanding and enduring contributions to the advancement of the livestock industry.” Just last February the National Cattlemen’s Foundation presented him with the National Beef Industry Vision Award for his outstanding leadership and service to the beef industry.

According to his good friend Fred Dailey, Johnson’s forthright personality made him, “one of the most phenomenal people I have ever met in my life. He has lived his life on his own philosophical terms, and he has enriched the lives of those who have been fortunate enough to know him.”

The other side
Serious and stalwart as Fred was, I can’t think of him without a grin. He drove as if he was in the Indy 500, whether he was on his Ohio farm or in Nebraska’s rough hill country telling me one of his stories. He had a grin like a schoolboy and a lot of the time he was grinning about some mischief he had gotten into. His gracious and elegant wife, Betty, made the perfect foil and he loved her to distraction.

There are so many stories, like the time that Betty traded Fred’s Stetson for a punch bowl and cups while they were traveling in Russia. And who could forget his two bungee jumps at the Ohio State Fair at the age of 76. Everyone who knew him had heard the story of him flying his P-51 Mustang under the Steubenville Bridge, but his very favorite story was about the day he went to get a passport picture taken and Betty turned out to be the photographer.

Before he made the decision that Black Angus was the breed of the future, he and Betty tried Red Angus and then accumulated a herd of 200 Belted Galloways. Betty remembered the Galloways with a smile during my visit to the Ohio farm.

“We kept them in a pasture across the way there,” she said, “and they were impossible to move. When we wanted to take them from one pasture to another, we would open the gate and then the crew would hide behind the bushes and wait for them to wander through. If they got spooked it would take days to get them moved.”

It may be hard to imagine Fred Johnson waiting for the Galloways to decide to cross the road, but that was one of his best traits … you never knew what to expect.

Fred Johnson memorials can be sent to the National Cattlemen’s Foundation, 9110 East Nichols Ave., Suite 300, Centennial, Colo., 80112.