Dave passed peacefully in the early morning of Saturday January 24th, 2026 at his home in Slippery Rock, PA. He devoted his 74 years of life to connecting himself and all those he met to our natural world.
Born to Carroll “Redbird” Johnson and Eileen (Griffiths) Johnson in Pittsburgh on March 31, 1951, Dave grew up in the Fox Chapel area alongside his older brothers Lee and Alan in a three generation household that, when he entered the world, had no electricity or running water. His connection to the outdoors began with time spent fetching water, gardening, homesteading and embarking on many adventures and explorations in what was, during this time of great transition, still a very rural area. When his uncle gifted him with an axe for which to better practice his woodsmanship, young Dave honed the edge to such a sharpness that the unsuspecting uncle was badly cut when testing his nephew’s work. Dave took great interest in the flora and fauna around him, often capturing the more elusive ones with the shutter of his Kodak Brownie camera rigged to a trigger line. He was thankful for the first edition to the home’s electrical system of a single lightbulb by which his homework could more easily be done after sundown, providing more time to explore by daylight outside.
At Fox Chapel High Dave was a member of the nature club and a student of Miss Beulah Frey; an active Audubon Society member who, with her Audubon peers, led a set of 10 or so student naturalists on birding excursions all over the East. The young group impressed a skeptical Pittsburgh area National Audubon Society with their knowledge and data collection skills. Through high school he worked seasonally as an interpretive naturalist, maintenance worker, trail builder and program director for the parks of O’Hara Township. In ‘68 Dave served as a crew foreman for a twelve member backcountry work crew in the Cataloochie Wilderness Area of Great Smokey National Park and also at the Sugarlands Visitor Center. He developed and implemented environmental education programs and interpretative displays for the YMCA Deer Valley Resident Camp in Fort Hill while working with special population groups from other camps and adjudicated youth offenders via the Wilderness Challenge Program.
At Penn State University Dave was active in all sorts of things from logging skill competitions to gymnastics, snowshoe races and lord knows what else. He continued his seasonal work and service for the YMCA, this time as Director of Environmental Education building programming for inner city populations in the Golden Triangle Council area of Pittsburgh. Work as a biological aide with the U.S. Department of the Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service took him to refuges in Chincoteague, Blackwater and Cape Romain. Dave worked intermittently as a life guard and would sail small boats, launching from the beach.
Dave departed State College with a Bachelor’s in Interpretive Service from the newly formed program and returned to Chincoteague and Assateague Island National Seashore to continue his Biological Aide work as well as interpretive work and development of the Blue Crab Research Project. He went on special assignment to the endangered Loggerhead Turtles Project at Cape Romain. Dave entered law enforcement at this time, his least favorite aspect of his work, as a Dept. of the Interior Special Agent. He worked law enforcement at Chincoteague and was a member of a strike force sent to Eufaula NWR in Alabama around ‘72-’73. He had many storied run-ins with locals in these areas where the conservation approach was new and an agent of any sort was an unwelcome harbinger of change. All the same, after enough bar fights and run-ins, he must have found a way into the heart of these communities as he always spoke fondly of his time and the friends he made there.
Next up was a career with the PA Dept. of Environmental Resources, building and conducting environmental education and interpretative programs as well as park infrastructure at Black Moshannon State Park. He was a forest lookout towerman for DER’s Bureau of Forestry District 9, using cartography skills to keep the alidade maintained and the maps up to date. Dave brought his work to Clear Creek and Ohiopyle State Parks, eventually becoming the Region II Environmental Education Specialist.
In 1980 Dave was hired to supervise Jennings Environmental Education Center, a place where his work with the massasauga rattlesnake, the relict eastern prairie (and, of course, the tapping of delicious maple syrup) perhaps best defines his career. Under his leadership Jennings began what is likely the longest continuously running massasauga monitoring project in the country. The information gained there helped in listing the massasauga as state endangered and federally threatened. In 1985 he coordinated and directed the first North America Massasauga Rattlesnake Symposium. Dave was a pioneer for the use of prescribed fire in Pennsylvania State Parks. For many years, Jennings, under Dave’s leadership as Fire Boss, was the only PA State Park conducting prescribed fires and Dave was involved in the statewide fire program teaching others to conduct prescribed burns and fight wildfire.
Big Run, the tributary of Slippery Rock Creek that runs through Jennings presented a unique remediation challenge. Dave was instrumental in bringing together the private mining industry, government (including state and federal agencies), and non-profits to work up a novel approach to remediate abandoned mine drainage through passive treatment. He was on the forefront of this movement in Pennsylvania, and the work done at Jennings has been used as a model for systems state, nation, and world-wide. He helped establish the Jennings Water Quality Commission and Slippery Rock Watershed Coalition and was a board member of Stream Restoration, Inc.
During this time Dave was involved in early DER/DCNR search and rescue training and as adjunct faculty at Slippery Rock University (while also working toward a Masters in Resource Management). He collaborated with botanist Virginia Phelps on early research on the American Columbo, a curious, endangered plant in PA.
Dave also managed to marry, divorce, raise two boys, a series of faithful black labs and renovate two old homes during this era. He was very close with his extended family for many years and shared an especially strong bond with his brothers. He loved to hunt, fish, trap, hike, camp and shoot and he introduced his children to all of this and more as well as others via his time with Boy Scout Troop 33 Prospect. He kept hives of bees, planted and pruned orchards, gardened, blacksmithed, brewed ciders, wines and cordials, foraged for morels, elderberry and fiddleheads, kept his Jeep running and his house in order. He took deep, extensive dives into American and Scottish history, bringing many of the ancient techniques back to life, building (and using) his own period correct muzzleloaders, blades and equipment and collaborating with others at the Eastern Primitive Rendezvous. Dave took great interest in his heritage, tracing it in detail from the founding of the Scottish clan his ancestors belonged to, their journey to America and all the intertwining relationships that ensued. He loved, and excelled, at woodworking, turning many fine things on his lathe and building all variety of toys, gadgets and curios, much to the delight of those lucky enough to be gifted with one.
After “retirement” from Jennings in 2011 Dave continued his work there as a volunteer and with many other organizations. With 3MJC (Moraine McConnells Mill and Jennings Commission) he led the Foltz School project, restoring an 1880s era school that had been abandoned for 60+ years. He spent his golden years honing his skills as a folk artist, blademaker, woodworker and gunsmith in between frequent travels to Maine, England, Ireland and Scotland with his long time partner Gina Padilla.
Dave is survived by his sons, Ben and Chris Johnson, his partner Gina and his tight-knit community and extended family members who will miss him dearly. He was a true renaissance man, a devoted father, partner, civil servant and friend who lived authentically by his clan’s motto “vive ut postea vivas”- live that you may live again.
“tradition is not the worship of ashes but the preservation of fire”
It was Dave’s wish to be cremated and for a wake to be thrown in celebration of his life.
Please join us for Dave's wake on Sunday July 12th, 2026 at
Jennings, with the prairie in bloom.
For more information, to RSVP for the wake, share stories and photos or just to say hello, please send a note below.
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