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JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON 1892 1961 Last month, on the day that TELESCOPE went into the mails, the Institute, and this column, lost a dear friend. He was the first member of the Institute, for he founded the old Great Lakes Model Shipbuilder's Guild. He started TELESCOPE as a mimeographed monthly "newsletter", back in 1952. There is no point in trying to tally his contributions, for it can only lead back to the beginning, and he was the beginning. Because Captain Johnston was a dear friend to this column, it would be impossible to untangle sentiment from our thinking, and we won't even try. We loved him, and we respected him in much the same way we would a father. We looked upon him with reverence and awe. To most people he was "Cap", but we were among the very few to whom he was Joe. We can call to mind many impressions of this man; spinner of yarns, a teacher, an artist, and of course, a sailor. But most of all he was a gentleman and a gentle man. The accompanying picture says a great deal of what we think when we think of Joe. "Winky, the ship's cat", was a personality in his own right and well known to the old readers of TELESCOPE. That personality was but one facet, in reflection, of the "old man" himself. There are many more of these facets which reflect Joe for what he was, and for what his having been here has meant to us. He was a tireless worker who set a pace hard to emulate or find in this day of the coffee break and the forty hour week for his work was his love, and his love was his work. In the old days on the "WING" the crew would come aboard almost any morning to find Joe in the middle of a job he had begun when they were wakening to the first break of dawn. Retirement meant little to him, if his retirement is to be measured in the lessening of productivity. He formally "Retired" in April of 1959, and took up life in Niles, Michigan. Here, forgetting that he was supposed to relax, and with the indomitable drive that has always marked him, he built a new shop, a studio, and an out-building. They show the craftsman that he was. Built like a ship, there isn't a doubt that the buildings would float. He enjoyed these last years of his life as much, and very likely a little more, than all the rest of his time. He had new interests in the area he had adopted as his home, and he had, sharing those interests, a devoted and loving wife. The time allowed them together was short, but they shared a kind love that, like so many things about him, will go on for a long, long, time. Yes, Joe, it was a better life because you were with us. And now, Bon Voyage.