West Windsor
He seemed to live by a few simple rules: show up every day where you are supposed to be, work hard and don’t shirk your responsibilities.
Whether serving the town in several different capacities, working at Goodyear in Windsor or taking care of the family farm, Johnson never mailed it in. He remained true to those guiding principles right up until the day he died on Nov. 15.
A week earlier, Johnson, 89, arrived early to work at the Nov. 8 election as a ballot box watcher, someone who ensures voters put the marked ballots in the right box.
One of his daughters, Cathy Archibald, West Windsor’s town clerk, said her father did not want to come in the main entrance along the ramp because the polls weren’t open and he didn’t think it was right to leave voters waiting outside when he entered.
So Johnson came down the ramp in the rear entrance of Story Memorial Hall in Brownsville and made his way to the stairs in the front of the building that would take him up to the main floor. Part way up he lost his footing and fell, but he managed to recover and make it to the voting area.
“I asked him if he was OK, and he said ‘Yup, I’m fine,’ ” Archibald said. “He was just so dedicated. He wanted to do his job.”
Johnson took his customary position in front of the ballot box as he had done for years whenever there was a vote, and remained there most of the day.
“He had a knee replaced and then the other started going bad and he would fall,” said his other daughter, Gloria Farnsworth. “He should have used a walker.”
Farnsworth said her father did not go to see a doctor until Friday of that week and that is when they discovered the fall on the stairs had broken several ribs. He was hospitalized and died a week after the election.
For those who knew him, Johnson’s determination to serve the town despite his injury is not surprising. It is what he did most of his life.
“Ralph Johnson was just a hardworking, old-time Vermonter,” said road agent Mike Spackman, whose family knew the Johnsons since the early 1960s. “He just loved the town and always gave to West Windsor.”
Johnson was born and raised in Windsor, where he attended school. After serving in the Army with the military police, Johnson received an honorable discharge and returned home.
In 1949, Johnson and Edith Pinson were married on the family-owned farm on the Brownsville-Hartland Road, where they lived for the next 67 years. The couple raised four children, Frank, Gloria, Gordon and Cathy.
The most valuable and enduring lesson they learned from their parents was the value of hard work, said Farnsworth.
“He was a very hard worker and we learned hard work from him and it paid off,” she said. “We didn’t understand until we got off on our own how important it was.”
Gordon also recalled his father’s example and simple advice.
“Just be hard-working and trust everybody by their word. That is what I’ve done and it has worked out well,” Gordon said.
As the town’s only law-enforcement officer for many of the 45 years he served as constable, Johnson was perhaps the most recognizable face in town because he probably stopped nearly every resident as least once.
His friend Joan Spackman, Mike’s mother, said it was a tough job, not because of a lot of crime but because Johnson stopped friends often.
“It is a very difficult job in a small town,” said Joan Spackman, who praised Johnson for the gentle advice he would dispense at times when she was raising three boys. “People I think expected favors, but that was not Ralph. Everybody got treated the same.”
Johnson’s dedication to his police responsibilities was almost legendary.
Day or night, regardless of the time of year, when a call came in, Johnson responded.
“Ralph Johnson was on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” said his friend Richard Clay. “No matter what time it was, Ralph would be there.”
Clay recalled being at work in Windsor when his wife, home with their young daughter, called to say there was a car parked on their front lawn and she was more than a little concerned.
Clay called Johnson and only heard, ‘I’m on my way.’
Turned out to be just a couple of kids, who pulled over to “park,” Clay said. “Ralph just sent them on their way.”
With a steely-eyed stared from underneath his constable’s cap, Johnson likely straightened out more than a few youngsters with his stern warning, ” ‘Now don’t you lie to me,’ ” recalled Selectboard member Tom Kenyon.
Mike Spackman, whose father was second constable for a time under Johnson, suspects that’s what Johnson did most of the time when he came upon a car load of kids.
“He kept the youth around here straight,” Spackman said. “He would catch some Windsor kids here and send them back to Windsor.”
Clay and others said Johnson was “strict but fair,” when it came to patrolling speeders coming through town.
“I don’t think he gave out a lot of tickets,” Clay said.
Farnsworth said Johnson never really saw himself as being off duty.
“It didn’t matter where he was, he was very devoted. He could be shopping in Claremont, and if the tone went off, he left, regardless of whether he was with anybody,” Farnsworth said.
Farnsworth and Archibald said growing up on a farm, the work ethic was instilled in them at an early age.
The family had a small farm to tend to that came with typical farm chores.
“We got up early to cut wood before light,” said Farnsworth.
“We all had chores,” recalled Archibald. “There was haying, sugaring, splitting wood. I’d finish my homework and might have to go out to the garage to help my dad fix a tractor, handing him tools.
“We are what we are because of him. I sometimes come in to work here at 6 on a Monday morning because I have work to do. That is what he taught us.”
Johnson also served several years as assistant fire chief for the West Windsor Volunteer Fire Department and was chief for seven years.
In another capacity, he was tax collector and a member of the West Windsor Fast Squad.
But it was his dedication to serving the town as its singular law enforcement authority that people remember most about Johnson.
Clay, who spoke at a memorial service for Johnson, said he probably stopped about half the people who attended his memorial service for speeding at one time or another, usually just for a warning.
But those who did get a ticket probably have forgiven him, except his granddaughter, quipped Clay.
Clay said his friend looked forward to being on patrol, sitting in his car on a Friday or Saturday evening to keep an eye on potential speeders coming through town.
“He really enjoyed being a police officer,” said Clay.
Former Selectboard Chairman Glenn Seward said he came to appreciate Johnson’s dedication to the town when he served on the board.
“I don’t think anyone had West Windsor’s best interests at heart more than he did,” said Seward, who presided over the board when the decision was made a few years ago to transition from a constable to a contract with Windsor for police coverage.
“It was not easy for Ralph but he handled it in such a professional way. I have a lot of respect for Ralph.”
Clay saw the same thing in Johnson and said when it came to serving his community, he set a standard that few, if any, could measure up to.
“I don’t think there is another person in Vermont who did more for his community than Ralph Johnson did for West Windsor.”
Patrick O’Grady can be reached at pogclmt@gmail.com.
