Johnny was a legendary guy, even before we lost him. My CD Certificate bears his signature, and is one of the few things I display with pride in my shop...
He was a character with winning ways. Always a pertinent anecdote or joke ready at hand.
When we were in Omaha - early 1970s - he visited as AMA Pres to address the local model clubs. Crashed with the Scale CB member, a neatnik named Dean Copeland, and at his general meeting, mentioned the experience. We all knew Dean as a very "neat" guy, of course. Johnny said he was visiting with Dean in his workshop, while Dean worked on another Scale masterpiece. Johnny said he saw NO sanding dust anywhere in Dean's shop, but finally noticed Dean was continuously "chewing" on something...
He also loved to bring out "the inverting handle." A CL handle with the line carriers mounted on a spring-wound frame. When you went inverted, you simply pushed a catch - the line carrier snapped 180°, and up was still up...
On an Air Trails follow-on - for Young Men, or -Hobbies, cover, was a photo of Johnny with a pair of other Dallas fliers, and their stunters. His story of the occasion was that he took his stunter inverted, and tried to see how low he could fly it. He got LOW! After a few laps down low, he found he couldn't climb out of that height. Eventually, the prop struck and the flight ended. He swore that the reason he couldn't climb off the inverted was that the fin prevented the model from nosing up, and that there was a trail of ground off balsa around the circle to prove it.
I miss him. Everyone who knew him misses him. I regret only that I never caught him at home, at the shop in Dallas...