Terrace man hits the century mark

Published 5:10 pm Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Ernie Johnson, a long-time Ford Motor Co. employee, turned 100 years old Sunday, Oct. 12, and his family was there to celebrate with him.

“He just loved to hunt,” said his daughter, Alice Tschohl, a Port Ludlow resident who organized the birthday party at a group home in Mountlake Terrace.

Born on a farm in Sweden, Johnson came to the United States as a 20-year-old, at the tail end of the Roaring ’20s.

He worked on a farm in Wisconsin, then went into the logging business for a while before building a sawmill in Michigan.

After the stock market crashed in 1929, he became a hunter and trapper. Later, he married Wanita Brunn and the couple remained together for 43 years, until her death in 1984.

In 1939, Johnson started working for the Ford Motor Co., earning 39 cents an hour. He later moved to Cleveland and retired in 1968, relocating to Issaquah.

“He took me hunting and fishing, made me work every summer,” recalled his grandson, Mike Tschohl. “He was proud to be a Ford Motor Co. employee.”

His sister, Lori Tschohl, said her dad traveled to China, Russia and Africa as well as Antartica as a Ford employee, wearing his Ford hat wherever he went.

“He was just a spokesperson for the brand,” she said.