Obituaries

At his home, he liked planting evergreens.

His wife, Marne Lloyd-Smith Hornblower, whom he married in 1940, died in 2004.

Survivors include four children, Marjorie Johnson of Golden, Colo., Jenny Lawrence of Manhattan, Nancy Rice of Coronado, Calif., and Jonathan Hornblower of Corpus Christi, Tex.; two sisters; 11 grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.

Ross Edward JohnsonTeacher, Environmentalist

Ross Edward Johnson, 68, a reading teacher at Luther Jackson Middle School in Fairfax County for 25 years until he retired in 1993, died Sept. 20 of a heart attack at his home in Falls Church.

Mr. Johnson was active in Falls Church as an advocate for the environment. His volunteer work included protecting natural areas and improving walking and biking trails.

He was on the board of directors of Falls Church Village Preservation and Improvement Society during the 1970s and 1980s and was active in the Falls Church City Streams Task Force. He did conservation and maintenance work at Four Mile Run and Crossman Park. He held planting parties and helped with construction of a walking trail in the park, where a stream was named Ross' Run in his honor.

Mr. Johnson hosted the Falls Church Home Concert Series and worked as a volunteer in the Family Literacy program for Fairfax County public schools.

He was born in Pittsburgh and graduated from what is now California University of Pennsylvania. He received a master's degree in education in 1967 from Syracuse University, where he met his wife, who was also a student.

During his years as a reading teacher in Virginia, he would often tell his students that his home was in Tupper Lake, N.Y., in the Adirondacks, and that he went south for the winter to teach. He first fell in love with the Adirondacks in 1962 while teaching at Syracuse University's Pinebrook Conference Center on Upper Saranac Lake, and he later became director of Sagamore's Reading Camp on Raquette Lake.

He recently returned from his 36th consecutive summer in the Adirondacks, where in 1973 he designed a log cabin and built it with only a chain saw and hand tools on Tupper Lake's Spruce Island. He was a charter member of the Natural History Museum of the Adirondacks.

Survivors include his wife, Sheila Johnson of Falls Church; two sons, Kurt Johnson of Jackson, Wyo., and Brent Johnson of Mariposa, Calif.; a sister; a brother; and two grandsons.

Francis C. MacDonaldCIA Officer

Francis C. MacDonald, 80, a Central Intelligence Agency officer, died from complications of emphysema Oct. 4 at Fairfax Nursing Center. He lived in Vienna.