A week after former East Jefferson Fire Rescue Commissioner Dave Johnson passed away, his oldest son Jarred took a moment to reflect on his father’s life.

Yes, fire fighting and the outdoors played significant roles in his father’s life, Jarred said. But he wasn’t sure exactly why the career had called him.

“I never really talked to my dad about this,” he said during a phone call earlier this week.

“I don’t really know the best answer to that.”

It was clear talking to Jarred, however, that firefighting was in the blood. When his father met Dave’s mother, she was a firefighter. Jarred, 39, spent a decade fighting fires after graduating from high school, and his younger brother and only sibling has been in the fire service for 17 years.

“I did it primarily to pay for college,” Jarred said.

But there were other reasons, too, reasons that he believed his father pursued the calling.

“He really got into it because it was exciting and fun,” he added. “The task at hand was very appealing to him.”

David Francis “Dave” Johnson had a degree in wildfire science, and spent 39 years working as a champion of national forests and fire safety.

When he moved to Port Hadlock in 1984, he became the first EMT instructor in Jefferson County.

“He was a big picture guy,” Jarred said, adding that while working with East Jefferson Fire Rescue, Johnson was instrumental in merging Chimacum with East Jefferson, beginning the station consolidation process with Port Ludlow, and getting Station 1-2 underway on Marrowstone Island.

Over and over, Jarred emphasized his father’ desire to be of service to others.

“His faith was very important to him,” Jarred said. “He definitely was a man of God who tried to live his beliefs and faith.” While Johnson wasn’t a proselytizer, he “never shied away from talking about it [his faith].”

Two days after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, Johnson underwent an invasive Whipple procedure to remove cancerous tissue. After pulling through, Johnson defied all odds, living a rich and full life for
4½ years before passing away Jan. 24.

“He outlived the life expectation time and time again,” Jarred said.

In the last year alone, he said, his mother, Johnson’s sole caretaker since his diagnosis, made a hundred trips to Seattle to the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance.

It wasn’t all hospital stuff, though.

“My dad did walk everyday,” Jarred said.

Jarred intends to join his brother on hunting trips like they used to take with their father, a tradition that Johnson started in their adulthood to bring the family close.

“He helped me get into fishing and hunting in the outdoors,” Jarred said. “He definitely fostered a love of the wilderness and being a good steward of it.”

A celebration of life will happen sometime this spring, Jarred said. Right now, his brother is looking at a 21-day fire trip, so the most likely time looks like March.

Right now, people keep coming to Jarred and saying the same thing: “If your dad loved you, you knew it, because he told you.”