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Soccer goalie, baseball pitcher, basketball center—in many a tight game “Porky” Johnston knew how to make the difference. He used that same judgment in deciding his path through the years after high school. Sometime teammate Pete Rose (Class of ’59) himself star athlete, Green Beret, then a journalist, said of Bob, “He had the most talent of anyone I played with, probably including the University of North Carolina where we had a good team with players who went on to the pros. I had to drag him out to play summer ball. I recall getting him down to the field at Glen Cove and a bunch of scouts drooling behind the backstop at his stuff. He had a very good ‘smoking’ fastball that ‘hopped’ and curve that ‘dropped off the table.’ It was all I could do to catch his pitches--I was an all-county catcher my senior year, so had done some catching.”
Bob modestly remembers another side of sports. “I boxed Arty [Kaufman, ‘56] all the time and he was left handed and he knocked me down.” And he deliberately avoided at least one reward. “I recall taking typing with Mrs. Zipperian and never chose to exceed 39 words a minute because 40 or more meant you were to receive an award at Moving-Up Day.”
Bob did sign with the Dodgers his senior year and played with their Bluefield, West Virginia and Kokomo, Indiana teams. When he came home in the fall the only strutting he did was with a mailbag on his shoulder. In spring of ’58 he reported to the Thomasville, Georgia Dodgers team, traveling the South in a bus. Then his pitching arm “started going kerfluie.” He had already begun to think about the guys he knew who had a wife and kids and were spending spring and summer riding around in buses. “I said, this is not for me.” He delivered mail the rest of that summer and Twink Leckie (’56) said, “Hey, I’m going to Emporia, wanna go?” Emporia State in Kansas was the university where Mr. and Mrs. Jim Fraley who ran the Youth Center had gone and where they had sent on several Sea Cliff kids.
At Emporia Bob met Sandy Pound of Wichita and married her. While she was finishing her degree in education, Bob started on his Masters in Counseling. When Sandy was ready they moved to Colorado to teach then returned to Kansas to take jobs near her hometown, Shawnee Mission. Bob finished his masters and began work as a counselor. Four years later he took a job in the financial aid office at Wichita State College. One morning he came in early and noticed the flag a half mast but knew of no news to explain it. The staffer who raised the flag said he had not been able to get it up any higher. A few hours later the nation heard the news that the plane carrying the college football team had crashed and killed all on board.
From Wichita Bob went on to take his doctorate and work at universities in Illinois, then in Texas and Nevada as head of admissions and registrar. His status in the last two positions was recognized by election as President of the Nevada Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers and as Vice President of the same organization in Texas.
Bob and Sandy retired in Texas in 1998. Bob says he can’t sit back and watch life pass by. He substitutes as an elementary teacher because he finds the opportunity at that level to help kids shape their own futures. And the kids have no politic. “There are no Democrats or Republicans there. If you pay attention to them, they love you. “
Bob had his tickets and reservations for the class reunion when he heard about the hurricane heading for Galveston. He had a feeling he ought to stay. Thousands were left homeless, and Bob volunteered to work with the Salvation Army preparing hundreds of thousands of meals. “That’s what I enjoy doing---working with people and helping.” He still enjoys being on the team and, when the game gets tight, he knows how to make a difference.
