Zeno Martel Johnson Ph.D.

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Biography

In year 2000, during one of my visits to Phoenix, Dad and I were browsing in a bookstore and I must have made some little observation about something or other because he said in response "If you want to better understand me read this book." He then handed me "All the Strange Hours" by Prof. Lauren Eisley, (1907-1977) of the University of Pennsylvania". ^[1] Of course I bought the book. Zeno was a highly complex man so I doubted Eisley's essays could help me better empathize with his frame-of-life references; but, I read the book. Afterword I read more of Eisley's work which described his experiences and observations about life and suddenly decades of details I'd either witnessed or intuited about dad gelled into a cohesive form and my understanding became three dimensional. I finally understood that he tried to navigate his life's journey for the purpose of seeking clarity about what to do next while having to cope with constant uncertainties about the present. Because of Eisley's work I finally saw a whole person in Zeno, his faults, his successes, and most importantly his spirit and I found he was right; I finally [mostly] understood.

Birth and Youth

The former Right Reverend "Zeno Martel Johnson III, Phd., was born at 8:10 p.m., 11 December 1928, Phoenix, Arizona to parents Zeno M. Johnson, Jr., and Maxine Edith (Barnes) Johnson". ^[2] At the time of his birth the Johnson family resided in a small home at 917 E. Garfield Road in what is now the historical district for Phoenix. His father was an auto-mechanic who worked independently ^[2] and who had begun working on model-T cars at a very young age when he lived in Mexico; as the internal combustion engine advanced in complexity so too did his mechanical aptitude. His father new a great deal about horses, having been raised on a ranch and Zeno Jr. knew everything about cars and trucks.

Zeno, III was an only child although in December 1941 when he was about thirteen years old, his parents would have another son they named Jay Barnes Johnson but the child died several weeks after his birth.

After the Garfield home the Johnson family then resided with his mother's parents, Robert and Mary (Swadley) Barnes. His grandfather Barnes was an independent copper miner who owned a small production mine in the Superstition Mountains and who was away a great deal of the time. Also included in this household was Maxine's only sibling, brother Maurice 'Barney' Barnes. Zeno's dad and Barney were long time friends. Their home during the 1930's, was located at 1834 E. Portland, St., Del Ray (a small independent twp. within Phoenix city limits). ^[3] The house was small, clean and sparse. Zeno's father paid rent; his in-laws owned the house.

His extended family
The Johnson's were very active in the LDS church; many extended family members dropped by for visits and in turn were visited. His grandfather Johnson had nine siblings and twenty-two half-siblings; his great-grandfather having been a LDS polygamist with four wives who raised their families in northern Mexico. His father's four siblings and their families all lived fairly close to each other in Phoenix.

Growing up around his father's family members made life-long impressions in him; he remembered meeting numerous times his great-grandmother Lucy Elizabeth (Brown) Johnson (1859-1952) who was a resident of Tucson. Zeno's mother, Maxine, who was outgoing and "high spirited" was fond of the numerous women in her husband's family. According to Zeno "they bonded over their gossip."

During these long family visits Dad later told me it was always his desire to "remain quiet and just listen without judgement although everyone around him behaved otherwise because they had such strong opinions." He also admitted to me a bit of resentment "set in" during his teenage years. He would rather have been "reading literature because he had difficulty accepting the Mormon faith at face value". He also said he was self-conscious of his extreme height and of being "a bit of a physical weakling because of the polio" whereas the other family boys always appeared robust and healthy. Zeno told me his teenager desires were channeled into classical history and humanities subjects which were alien to his parents. They grew up in farming and cattle ranch environments filled with physical experiences whereas with Zeno life was all about text books. He also said later that he lived with people who weren't comfortable with questions so he stayed quiet.

Zeno was already studying English literature at school and he became immersed in the Classics. As these early school years progressed he was found to be advanced for his age so he sought out the more experienced teachers for discussion and answers.

As with most others the Great Depression was difficult for Zeno. He often said to me he remembered his family living in a small cramped house and there were always arguments about religion. Work was scarce at that time although his family was known for their frugality he said "money was tighter than usual." As a sickly child in a small house this would have added to everyone's discomfort and Zeno knew this. He also [much later] told me his visiting male relatives scared him because "they'd show up with guns, lots of guns, to go hunting." He told me "he didn't mind the guns", he later became a hunter himself, he was just "scared of the 'wild exuberant men' who carried them." His told me that his mother became over-protective during these years which also didn't go over well with the men.

Zeno's parents and grandparents experienced a life-time of excellent health except for his maternal grandmother Mary (Swadley) Barnes. Zeno's fate paralleled Mary's in this regard. He had contracted rheumatic fever as a child an illness which later produces adverse health effects for many years. America was also experiencing a significant polio epidemic brought to national attention by the stricken wheelchair bound President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Polio is a bacterial infection with bad long-term health consequences on a persons peripheral nervous system. About the age of twelve Zeno contracted the disease, the infection settling in his upper back eventually causing spinal curvature reducing his [eventual] height from 6'8" to 6' 5". For decades he had to wear an uncomfortable steel, back brace which, unfortunately, transmitted cold temperatures quite efficiently.

Due to his ill health, and his father working away from home while the Salt River Project built out the state's electrical grid, Zeno grew up around the stay-at-home (LDS) mothers. He once told me with a smile "the women [who raised me] taught me how to gossip". He was fortunate to have lived near his paternal grandparents and always remembered them with fondness. His Johnson ancestry was filed with early Mormon Pioneers of New England descent while his mother was half Scottish and half "Pennsylvania Dutch" (German) people from the Rhineland. Zeno's father and paternal grandparents had many past stories they shared having arrived in Arizona after fleeing Poncho Villa's destruction of their farming ranch and businesses at Colonia Diaz, Chihuahua, Mexico during the Mexican Revolution. ^[4] In 1935 his father purchased a small home for the immediate family which improved their privacy needs. ^[5]

Late 1930's through the 1940's.
As a youth Zeno attended Emerson, an older already established elementary K-8th grade school built in red brick standing three stories. He and many of his classmates then attended North High School on Thomas Road situated across the street from the gated (wealthy) Phoenix Country Club subdivision. At North High he befriended Wayne Delvin whose sister Deljean Zeno would later marry. Wayne and Zeno shared the love of hiking for miles in the desert or in nearby mountain ranges. They became very experienced and the quiet seclusion outdoors suited their personalities. Wayne would go on to become a Chemist while Zeno hadn't yet made up nis mind. After high school the vast majority of his classmates either entered the job market or continued additional vocational training. A small percentage went on to college like Wayne and Zeno. The difference being Wayne's parents could afford to send him away to school but Zeno's parents could not. While holding down part-time work in a mortuary home, work that would frankly haunt him the rest of his life, Zeno attended nearby Phoenix College and quickly earned his two-year associates degree with high honors in Humanities. He still didn't know what type of employment he wanted to pursue. He only knew he loved school and learning. His parents were confused by this. Their reliably solid lifestyle and, to him, simple world-view, weren't enough to hold his interest. Zeno felt that their way of life was undermined by too many unexplored religious contradictions. As a consequence they were quickly left behind in his mind although he continued to resided near them until their deaths.

The 1950's and Zeno meets his closest friends
Zeno completed his four year undergraduate degree in Philosophy at Arizona State with honors and continued through his master’s degree in English Literature graduating December 1951 again with honors. While attending Arizona State Zeno befriended Professor Nelson Haggersen, Ph.D., English Literature Professor and Rhodes Scholar, who would remain his close friend through the decades until Nelson's death. Zeno and Nelson would occasionally collaborate on papers Nelson authored and published. ^[6] Additionally, when Zeno attended Phoenix College he began a long friendship with a peer who would later become a dynamic English Literature instructor (John Hardaway. Ph.D.) specializing in Mark Twain who was always an interesting topic of conversation. It was John Hardaway who introduced Zeno to his future life-long mentor the Right Reverend Donald Borland Robinson, D.D. (1917-1997), a local Episcopal parish priest. All three men, Nelson, John and Don who were to influence Zeno intellectually and emotionally the next forty years or more. Reverend Robinson and his wife Hope would become my Godparents. It was alumnus Donald Robinson who gave Zeno the idea to apply for a scholarship to the Episcopal Divinity School located on the main Harvard Campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Courtship of his first wife During his Phoenix College day's Zeno began dating his friend Wayne Delvin's younger sister Deljean. After completing his Master’s degree in the spring of 1951 he was accepted to Harvard's Episcopal Divinity School, class of 1957. He would earn another Master’s degree and his Doctorate of Divinity. The school was situated on Harvard Square, near the Charles river, in one of the campus' oldest red-stoned buildings. The chapel was large and the lecture facilities had been modernized while retaining the original facade but he later said the lecture rooms were drafty in winter. ^[7] Attendance involved living on campus during school terms which he did for seven years.

Marriages and Children

First marriage and the births of his three children. In a church ceremony Twenty-three year old Zeno Martel Johnson, III and nineteen year old Deljean Edna Delvin were married on the 23 December 1951, First Baptist Church, Central Ave., Phoenix, Arizona, the Delvin's being life-long Baptists. ^[8] He and Deljean participated in a double wedding with her brother Wayne who married his high-school sweetheart Dorothy Quiring. Wayne completed a B.S. in Science (Chemistry). The Delvin's relocated to Richmond, Benton County, Washington where Wayne had accepted a position as a nuclear chemist at the Hanford Nuclear Reactor project. Wayne would remain employed by the facility and its changing owners over the next forty years. After Wayne's retirement the Delvin's relocated back to the Phoenix area residing in the Wickenburg foothills. Through my initial encouragement they would occasionally reunite with Zeno for visits, Deljean having passed away many years before.

1950's to the early 1970's
Once married Zeno and Deljean began a six year bi-annual commute between Cambridge, Massachusetts and Phoenix, Arizona. During summers Zeno was employed in various teaching roles working as an instructor in English Literature and grammar at various high schools in the Phoenix area. As a consequence of these numerous temporary teaching roles and the commute to Cambridge they changed households several times yearly which was hardest on Deljean; a woman vigorously taught to live within the framework of her mother's rigorous home-economics training. This contrasted with Zeno's background involving a much more simplistic home-economics management approach by women with a different orientation towards life such as simplicity in their material surroundings. Zeno never could relate to the complexities of the Delvin household home economics; other than enjoying her 'made-from-scratch' cooking Deljean had trained towards a post-depression ideal Zeno didn't understand. He wanted to live like a monk and she came into the marriage with fine China, delicate crystal and Gorham sterling silver. Deljean, a fine pianist, played her music on a 'Baby Grand'. He once told me he should have listened to his instinct and waited to marry but Deljean begged otherwise. She didn't want to be left alone at home with her mother after brother Wayne married. Wayne, with whom she was very close, had served as a buffer between her and her mother. Zeno, who was very well acquainted with the Delvin family, commiserated and "gave-in" to the marriage plans.

Zeno divorces Deljean and they then remarry.
Although he "admired her style and taste", in the summer of 1957 after graduating from the Episcopal Divinity School at Harvard ^[9] with a Doctorate, Zeno and Deljean divorced "due to her spending which scared him". It wasn't the quantity of her purchases, that was modest: It was the expensive quality of her style. It never occured to him that he was the one responsible for repeatedly exposing her to "high-born" [wealthy] taste. As a consequence, when I was four years old, Deljean returned to her parents in Phoenix where we lived in a spare bedroom. I remember sleeping on a cot while my mother and new baby sister occupied the twin bed. Zeno resided in Cleveland, Ohio that summer in order to assist a local parish priest. By 16 May 1958 Zeno and Deljean had reconciled and remarried. ^[10]

Completion at Harvard Divinity School and return to Phoenix.
The Johnsons returned from Cambridge, Massachusetts to 'the Valley' as Phoenix was referred to and settled into a newly built home at 64th St. and Camelback Rd. Dad later told me when we returned "he didn't know how he was going to pay for the small moving van hauling our household belongings and it was his father who quietly appeared on his door step cash in hand that solved the dilemma". I imagine dad told grandmother about his cash shortage and she told grandpa. I remember walking by myself daily the six blocks to and from Tonolea grade school for kindergarden and first grade. I was tall for my age and carried myself with physical confidence so I was never bothered. I never saw dad except at dinner. After Cambridge, Zeno was teaching high school grammar while he considered his options in the Episcopal ministry. On 17 July 1959 Deljean gave birth to their third and final child, Jay Barnes Andrew Johnson which triggered a severe collapse in her health. Her immune system illnesses were not understood by the general medical community and it didn't occur to them to seek the advice of a rheumatologist although there was and still is no cure for lupus. Zeno later explained to me that "early on Deljean wanted to avoid pregnancies by having a hysterectomy but Arizona Doctor's weren't willing because she was still of child-bearing years". Instead, the medical community sought a solution by pacifying her with pain killers. While they lived in Massachusetts birth control was illegal and the small student housing rooms they occupied, while living on campus, didn't have enough space for two beds. Mom later told me they tried "the rythem method" but her fertility was too persistent.

From Phoenix to Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
In 1959, Zeno and Deljean set up house in a newly developed residential middle-class neighborhood at 64th St. and Camelback Rd. in Phoenix. We were to remain their for about three years after which Zeno accepted a position in Sioux Falls, South Dakota at Church of the Good Shepard, a small neighborhood Episcopal parish church which remains active today in 2023. ^[11] While resident in Sioux Falls he also taught grammar at Augustana Collage. Unfortunately, South Dakota's extreme winters made Deljean's immune system illness much worse and doctor's were still at a loss to explain her bad health. On a now steady basis doctors prescribed opiates in order to minimize pain and inflamatory discomfort. From those years I remember this clearly and I also remember dad shunning any such pallative because "it clouded his thinking". To overcome his pain he "ran on adrenaline". He also drank a lot of coffee. Our household was always non-alcoholic, except for the occasional glass of sherry. Mother did a bit of oil painting and was decent at it but she stopped playing piano and grew more distant and resentful while Zeno continued to be absent due to parish duties, teaching or visiting friends. The cold weather made his back pain worse although contrary to mother's habit he continued to refuse pain medication. As earlier stated he told me it dulled his mind and that's how he made his living.

Second separation from Deljean and return to Phoenix.
This time it was Deljean who left Zeno although a legal divorce wasn't initiated. In late 1964 she brought her three children back to Phoenix. Zeno followed after selection of a new pastor. In Phoenix he accepted a position as assistant rector under the Rev. Don Robinson at St. Paul's Episcopal church then located at 34th St. and Thomas Rd. During that period he befriended all despite their race or background. His friendship with Donald and wife Hope Robinson continued to flourish.

Resignation from the Episcopal church and completion of Ph.D. in Sociology
By the early 197's Zeno had served the Episcopal church for sixteen years and he decided to switch careers; he had no emotional strength left to give which was needed to survive the increasingly polarized politics. He was accepted into a teaching position at Mesa Community College contingent upon completing a PhD. in Sociology from Arizona State. His thesis dissertation addressed the topic of marriage and the family. A copy of his dissertation has not been found. Perhaps A.S.U. maintains a local copy in its archives.

Zeno found sociology refreshing and was undaunted by the rigorous field of statistical analysis required for its study and the research he performed. He expressed to me, a number of times, that socialogy was an academic discipline more germane to current events which included the ongoing VietNam War. His future decades at Mesa Community College proved to be an emotional relief because it allowed him to engage in secular and refreshingly straight forward dialogue as opposed to worrying about "what the vestry might think". Teaching at MCC was more preferable than a position at A.S.U. because he was a bit worn out. He liked engaging in esoteric conversation with academic friends at Arizona State about their current research projects but he didn't have the energy or stamina to research and publish his own original work. So, he was content to observe the efforts of his friends and they appreciated that he was a voracious reader who retained an incredible amount of information and gave them informed intelligent feedback.

Perhaps it was because he was in the right place at the right time and taught a subject which addressed the fear and confusion of most baby-boomers, who were the grandchildren of 'The Silent Generation', Zeno was extremely popular with his students. A natural orator, with his slender height larger than life, he had a strong voice, a melodic basso pleasant on the ears. And, he spoke a rhetoric which was easy to listen to. ^[12]

The later years of the Viet-Nam War.
I know from his later retelling that Zeno and his close friends had been active voices in the 1950's counter-generational movement; they relished but were also apprehensive of those McCarthy years and during the academic rise of post-modernism. They were seeing science triumph over human nature with its superstitions and religious based dogma; they were witnessing great social experiments to eliminate hunger and poverty and the struggles between capitalism, communism and socialism; they had lived during the Great Depression, WWII, the Korean War, and the Cold War with its very real nuclear threats. From humble beginnings they benefited from the rise of middle class America. They watched in admiration the Civil Rights movement and women's liberation and participated in local debates about how nations are actually built, what colonialism really accomplished and how world histories are written by the winners, not losers. The narrative of life was being rewritten and Zeno and his academic friends were fully involved. Enhancing the integration of new thoughts and conversations was the rise of mass communication; most households now owned TV's in addition to radio's.

Zeno and his parents.
During his early adult period, after the acquiring of many educated opinions, Zeno would attempt to engage his father in discussion about social events. His father, who appeared to never have developed a vocabulary outside his work environment, was a strong reflection of generational LDS conservatism and the tension between them mirrored their polarity. Zeno's father never understood his son and his son returned the favor. I witnessed both sides of this conflict and instinctually tried to keep a low profile. There were times when Zeno would turn to his mother for support but stalwart as she was she never had an opinion to disagree with her husband. She never disagreed with anyone except perhaps when she gossiped with her friend Maggie.

When Zeno and his parents were together it was like watching an old black and white TV show: The case of the over educated but inexperienced not knowing how to talk to the under educated but world weary. There just wasn't any common ground with which to proceed. After numerous confrontations my grandmother would repeatedly say to me "Harvard ruined that man" which was confusing because I thought education was a key to understanding not realizing (at that time) that like anything else education can be a trap which works against common sense and practicality. To me Zeno appeared to never understand his mother's lack of opinion on social matters but he accepted it. Later I grew to perceive it was how she survived for decades amongst all those strongly opinionated LDS family members. Based upon my observations I'm unsure Zeno ever 'got that' about her.

Final divorce from Deljean.
After eighteen years Zeno and Deljean divorced due to irreconcilable differences. They were two people who were each emotionally frail and not equipped to understand, let alone cope, with each others differences. During their marriage my siblings and I only ever witnessed strife and anger. During their marriage we never once saw them act with affection or even simply tell the other "I love you". It was clear they didn't like each other although that was probably different in the beginning. While Deljean suffered under the weight of her immune system health issues Zeno continued to experience muscular-neurological side effects from his childhood polio.

Second marriage.
Not long after his divorce he remarried on 23 July 1971 Shirley Ann Caps who also of Phoenix, Arizona. ^[13] Witnesses to the marriage included his old English Lit. instructor and friend from Phoenix College John Hardaway and his then current girl friend.^[14] It was John who had introduced them. Shirley was emotionally a strong, steady and calming influence on him. She was youthful and a semi-professional tennis player. Shirley had a strong quiet presence and was emotionally mature beyond her years. She was easy to be around and held a responsible job at Valley National Bank in their Trust and Loan department. She was twenty-one when they married; I was eighteen; my mother was shocked. I believe in her mind she thought they would always get back together once we kids were grown. She also blamed dad's friend John Hardaway for influencing him. Shirley and dad seemed to enjoy their marriage but I believe she eventually outgrew him and they amicably divorced five years later. According to my brother, before he died in 2017, Shirley never remarried and still worked in the Valley National Bank as a Loan Trust Officer. She and Jay would talk every few years.

Zeno's father passed away unexpectedly in 1973 from a heart-attack. After words Zeno maintained a very close relationship with his widowed mother until her passing; she living with him and Shirley for a few years. He ensured she didn't lack for anything and Shirley liked Maxine. They had a large roomy house which supported all that goodwill.

In his personal life Zeno possessed a keen sense of frugality despite an ever increasing lure of consumer products blossoming onto the American market. He didn't have cheap taste but maintained caution in his wants. He grew up with extremely frugal parents who suborned comsumerism to their religious beliefs and that 'rubbed off' on him. His stoicism surely equaled the minimalist levels of a New England Puritan although he experienced tremendously enjoyment in classical music and literature. The Valley, as Phoenix was called, had always been heavily influenced by Frank Loyd Wright projects and from these examples Zeno developed a keen architectural eye towards style and construction. I was fortunate because he had good taste and it was something he taught me without saying anything. Though I never lived with him after my early teens I loved the style of his choice in homes: They weren't typical middle-class knock-off's. He found homes which contained elements of uniqueness, appeal and environmental harmony. I also loved his classical music choices and his taste, admitably 'high-brow', in friends.

Third marriage: the 1980's and onwards
In 1980, and through another life long academic friend [Prof. John Hardaway, Ph.D.], he met and dated Mary Ellen Collins, a divorced mother with two grown sons. Although only twelve years apart in age to me she would later respectfully refer to herself as my step-mother and in many ways I began to imagine her in that traditional role because she was a mother and I was not. According to Mary Ellen it took dad a few years to learn to live with someone again. At home he always lived a simple, spartan existence with a sprinkling here and there of his excellent classical taste in the arts. His external life was very demanding, intellectually [with his collegueas] and emotionally [with his students]; his home life was quiet and contemplative. According to Mary Ellen she "eased herself on in" and several years later they finally bought a house together.

Zeno and Mary Ellen Johnson were to be married for 35 years and I watched it unfold with interest. A fascinating aspect about their early relationship involved some synchronicity: While attending West High School, Mary Ellen's home economic teacher, for two years, was Zeno's former [and dreaded] mother-in-law Dorothy Delvin. Because of Dorothy's exacting standards and expectations for her students Mary Ellen remembered this particular teacher well.

All marriages require adjustments, time presents suprises and Zeno began experiencing new different puzzling health problems in the early 1990's [his years of severe non-diabetic peripheral neuropathy] which strained their marriage. The doctor's claimed he "must have sucked on lead toy's as a child which finally degraded the nerve endings in his legs." He didn't remember lead toys but the medical profession, at that time, didn't have a better explanation. Health problems also began plagueing Mary Ellen and after several years of mutual dissallusionment the two finally worked out an acceptable rhythm with which to reduce the psychic dissapointment and maintain cheerfulness.

In the late 1990's, during a visit to my (maternal) uncle Wayne and aunt Dorothy Delvin's home in Wickenburg, Arizona, Uncle Wayne remarked to me, after observing dad and Mary Ellen, that he thought my dad was trying to 'make up' for his failures as a husband with my mother. He didn't say this out of criticism or spite; it was said out of observant kindness and a forgiveness I believe he needed to express. In the early 1990's I had pushed dad to get reaquanted with his old high-school friend and former brother-in-law believing the two would get along and that contact might help establish some closure when either of them thought of my mother. It appeared to work because dad and Mary Ellen paid Wayne and Dorothy a number of visits to the Delvin's Wickenburg home. The several times uncle Wayne and aunt Dot were in Texas, once Austin and once San Antonio, my husband and I met up with them and they both seemed comfortable with their renewed acquaintance to dad.

His later years, his world view, his 'take' on things. A long-time friend of Dad's once asked me why, with his intellect, memory and curiosity, why wasn't he a lecturer at Arizona State and publish his research. My respone was "that's why he never went to work in academia; he didn't have the stamina to see the research through. Peer review wasn't the problem, his health was." Teaching at MCC was much less physically and emotionally demanding and he'd rather be surounded by quietly successful low key but interesting intellects than have to live in the emotionally demanding environment that a large university entailed. Dad was an excellent conversationalist and that skill coupled with his life-long reading of academic journals and exposure to professionally eclectic friends were his tools for probing the world and its never ending peculiarities.

Zeno was forever at heart a philosopher always seeking truth, always balancing opposing forces, always reconciling his experience and environment through observation and structured reasoning. All this while forever enduring bad health. It wasn't until his 60's that I witnessed in him a integration of his complex personality which made him more human to me, more understandable. He once observed I was a platonic thinker and he an Aristotelian although he finally found a balance between these two Western modes of thought, the emotional and the rational, and it elevated his sensitivity about human nature to levels others try to reach through faith alone but without the ability to articulate the ineffible whereas his understanding reached into deeper meanings which, in the end, didn't leave him with spiritual doubt but instead embued him with calm resignation to accept "what-ever it was to come."

Zeno was a Contemplative in the truest sense forever looking inward and studying what he saw. He had been an early student of the western worlds great philosophers but the actual lives of the New England transcendentalists most fascinated him. One of my most joyous memories was when we were back in New England and visited the Sleepy Hollow cemetery in Concord, Middlesex County, Massachusetts where the Transcendentalists were buried. For us the experience of that day spent at the cemetery was 'mind-blowing'. Like visiting a great European baroque cathedral the site took our breath away. And Emerson's gravestone, a massive unshaped boulder of pristine white quartz, was filled with as much spiritual meaning as those cathedrals. He didn't then realize both he and Emerson were descendants of the Reverend William Sargent (bef 1602-1682) who was among the early Puritans of Massachusetts.

Death and Cremation

In August of 2017 Zeno died a few months before his 90th birthday having passed away at home after several month's of a painfull ordeal. He'd fallen earlier that year while going to the bathroom in the middle of the night. He broke his hip in several places; a wound which never healed and six months later he passed away from an advanced infection.

Two years earlier a prolonged throat prolapse, which redirected fluid into his lungs triggering many lung infections, finally forced him to have a stomach feeding tube installed. Two years spent coping with the external feeding tube may have contributed to some malnourishment resulting in bone loss although he and Mary Ellen were consciencious about nutrition. By the time he broke his hip Zeno was emotionally drained. His long time intellectual and academic friends, with whom he had held lively meaningful conversations were gone; most everyone of his generation were gone. He loved his family dearly, he felt confident "everyone is safe and sound, but the wind has gone out of my sails". Deep down I knew his time had come although I didn't want to give the words voice. There were still things I wanted to say but I also knew he'd said everything he could, to me.

During a lucid moment shortly before his passing I asked him if he thought of his parents and grandparents, all those who have been gone a long time, and he replied "why yes, they're all around me". Instinctually I realized he was being metaphysically literal. I never did ask him if he finally believed in God; I thought I already knew the answer. For the last thirty or so years, in casual conversation, he styled himself as "a passive buddhist" but I always heard hints in his words that made me ponder about his subtle belief in "a probable grand design; too grand for us to really understand so for eons 'we've' contrived elaborate dances around the subject in order to make it feel more real". When hinting about the 'Grand Design' I didn't think he was referring to the 'Golden Mean'; he believed in more than ones and zero's as the final explanation for life.

Unlike his parents and grandparents, all four of whom are buried in the same cemetery, along with his deceased baby brother Jay, Zeno was cremated and as of 2023 his ashes remain in the possession of wife Mary Ellen (Collins) Johnson, resident in Tempe, Arizona.

In Memorium

Those of us left behind to remember him will never forget his exuberance, spirit and particularly his humility when faced with greater knowledge than he himself possessed. He always told this biographer "there are three things that make me humble: a fossil, a microscope and a telescope". Zeno continually sought to update his understanding of life's truths and most importantly realistic truths about himself. Unknown to most others he had always grappled with his feelings which ran deep but were consciously suppressed until much later in his life after careful integration with his intellect. He told me many times that he'd "finally found balance although it took years of internal training to keep the pendulum centered." With his third and final wife he finally learned how to say "I love you" and really mean it.

From Leigh Anne to Dad, August 2017.

I know you're across the universe

ever so divine

but remember me in your dreams

and I'll remember you in mine.

"Daddy's Long Legs" by Leigh Anne Johnson Dear

Daddy's Long Legs

carry him up the hill

in my dreams

I follow him still

Little parish church

his destination his aim

meeting strangers and friends

treating everyone the same

With deep booming voice

complex message always clear

but it was just simple love

I always held dear

and craved one day

I would hear

those three simple words

I held most dear

from a father adored

who was never near

So I waited through life

growing up all alone

still dreaming of his gaze

I could call my own

Finally one day the father arrived

and now when he looked

there was no strife

And he finally observed

though always behind

she learned well and that he would find

her spirit still climbing

ever up that hill

never giving up

following him still.

Sources

1. ↑ To learn a little more about Lauren Eisley, Professor, Anthropology Dept., University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, author and essayist who was a renowned and remarkable humanist writer. Refer to either Wikipedia or 'The Pennsylvanian Gazette' University of Pennsylvania online edition, 17 Dec 2021, "A First Rate Version of Himself [A portrait of Loren Eisley]" by Dennis Drabell. Accessed 23 Apr 2023. https://thepenngazette.com/a-first-rate-version-of-himself/
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1} "Arizona Birth Records, 1880-1935" Certificate No.323; Registered No. 42. Filed 24 Jan 1929. Registrar 915-1211-422. Arizona State Board of Health, Bureau of Vital Stats. Reprinted ($ online image db) Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. Accessed 16 Nov 2023. Source (image) text quoted verbatim: Birth certificate notation: "Childs given name amended from "Jr." to III [3rd] as Jr. was correctly added to his father's name by affidavit of the registrant and his father's birth record." "Birth, Zeno M. Johnson III, b. 11 Dec 1928, Phoenix, Maricopa, AZ. Parents: Zeno Johnson, Jr. was b. in Mexico, occupation: Mechanic. Maxine Barnes Johnson was b. in California, housewife." Note that on the birth certificate Zeno's mother's age is given as 24 years although she was really 27 yrs having been born Jan 1901. https://www.ancestry.com/sharing/24108868?h=577b8f
3. ↑ "1930 U.S. Federal Census" taken 3 Apr 1930; Page: 3B; Enumeration District: 0059; FHL microfilm: 2339794. Reprinted (online image db) 2002, Provo, UT., USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. Accessed 7 May 2021. Source Text: "Robert H. Barnes, ae 53, mining broker; Mary S. Barnes, ae 51; Maxine Johnson, ae 27; Zeno M. Johnson, ae 25, auto-mechanic; Maurice H Barnes, ae 25, lineman. Zeno M Johnson, infant, is found on a separate 1930 form taken 17 Apr 1930; Census pg. Roll: 59; Page: 32A; Enumeration District: 0059; Image: 65.0; FHL microfilm: 2339794. His record in this original census form is cross-referenced by hand to his parents names in the earlier cited form.
4. ↑ Refer to 'Colonia Diaz, Chihuahua, Mexico', Wikipedia
5. ↑ "1940 U.S. Federal Census" Place: Phoenix, Maricopa, Arizona; Roll: T627_104; Page: 3A; Enumeration District: 7-26. Pub. (online image db) pub. 2012, Provo, UT., USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. Accessed 7 May 2021.
6. ↑ Haggerson, N. L., PhD. & Johnson, Zeno, M., III, PhD. (2002). "Bibliographic Scholar: A Review of Selected Writings; Chapter 14" Counterpoints, Vol.183, p.201–243. pub. Peter Lang, AG., 2002. Reprinted in its original. Accessed 4 Jan 2022. http://www.jstor.org/stable/42976840
7. ↑ Episcopal Divinity School Class of 1957, Episcopal Diocese, Harvard Campus, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. Physical Address: Episcopal Divinity School, 99 Brattle St., Cambridge, MA., 02338, USA; Class of 1957. Note that in 2017 the Episcopal Divinity School sold its Harvard Square campus location and at that time was in the process of relocating to its Manhattan, New York campus.
8. ↑ "Maricopa County, Arizona Marriage Licenses" Book 112; p.291 (image reader p.78194/86651) Reprinted (online image record db) as "Arizona, County Marriage Records, 1865-1972" 2016, Lehi, UT., USA: Accessed 7 May 2021. Source Text: "Zeno M. Johnson III of Coolidge, Pinal county, AZ. and Deljean Delvin of Phoenix, Maricopa, AZ. marriage license issued 15 December 1951 and were married 23 Dec. 1951 by a Baptist minister." https://www.ancestry.com/sharing/24109931?h=c463e6
9. ↑ "Episcopal Divinity School (EDS)"; Up until 2017 it was located on the maine campus in Harvard Square but thereafter relocated to New York City. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Episcopal_Divinity_School
10. ↑ "Affidavit for Marriage License" Book: 400; p.440. 16 May 1958 #281090; Form 43-9 (handwritten) #5357520; (handwritten) #5357590. Reprinted "Arizona, U.S., Maricopa county Marriage Records, 1865-1972: Affidavits 1958" Image reader p.2762/6372. Pub. 2016, Lehi, UT., USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. Accessed 7 May 2021. Source Text: "remarriage license application 16 May 1958, divorced 1957, Zeno M. Johnson 3rd, b. 11 Dec 1928 and of 1526 E. Brill St., Phx. AZ. & Deljean Delvin, b. 2 Sep 1931, of 819 E. Windsor Ave., Phx., AZ. https://www.ancestry.com/sharing/24110003?h=3fa931
11. ↑ Facebook: [Episcopal] Church of the Good Shepherd, 2707 W. 33rd St., Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Online web site: Meta Corporation. https://www.facebook.com/churchofthegoodshepherdepiscopal/
12. ↑ Haggerson, N. L., PhD. & Johnson, Zeno, M., III, PhD. (2002). "Bibliographic Scholar: A Review of Selected Writings; Chapter 14" Counterpoints, Vol.183, p.201–243. pub. Peter Lang, AG., 2002. Reprinted in its original. Accessed 4 Jan 2022. http://www.jstor.org/stable/42976840
13. ↑ "Arizona, U.S. Yavapai county Marriage Records, 1865-1972" p.368. License application 12 Jul 1971. Marriage date 23 Jul 1971; Witnesses John Hardaway & Francine Choguill [Cogill] Reprinted (image record online db) 2016, Lehi, UT., USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. Accessed 7 May 2021. https://www.ancestry.com/sharing/24110159?h=28645f
14. ↑ Arizona County Marriage Records, 1865-1972 for: Zeno Martel Johnson III. Marriage date: 23 Jul 1971. Marriage place: Yavapai, Arizona, USA. Spouse: Shirley Ann Capps. Description: Marriage Licenses/Certificates 1968-1972. Online record source access thru Ancestry.com.

See Also

• US WWII Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947 for: Zeno Martel Johnson, white male, 18 years. Birth place: Phoenix, Arizona, USA. Residence: Phoenix, Maricopa, Arizona, USA. Registration date: 1946. Employer: Student. Weight: 190. Complexion: White. Eye color: Hazel. Hair color: brown. Height: 6'5". Next of kin: Maxine A Johnson. Household members: Zeno Martel Johnson, Maxine A. Johnson. Online record source information access thru Ancestry.com.
• US Select Military Registers, 1862-1985 for: Zeno M Johnson III. Birth: 11 Dec 1928 in Arizona. Military date: 23 Apr 1952. Publication date: 1953. Title: National Guard Register, Army. Online record source information access thru Ancestry.com.
• US Public Records Index, Vol. 1: Zeno M Johnson 3rd. Birth: 11 Dec 1928. Phone number: 286-2142. Address: 195 E. Caroline Ln., Tempe, 85284-3110, AZ. Online record source access thru Ancestry.com.