It is with great sadness and an equal amount of shock that I write to advise you of the sudden and unexpected passing of long time Extravaganzer and Alaskaganzer (he was also participant in our successful forays years ago into the fly fishing waters surrounding Alaska’s Lake Illiama) Fred “The Guitar” Johnson who died of a heart attack at his Orinda, CA home this past Thursday.
Fred, his partner Paul Klass and I, for the past decade, collaboratively worked together on high-end business and personal succession planning projects and there was seldom a year that the three of us were not together working on “out of the box” strategies to benefit our collective client base. Fred’s background was one as a successful chief executive officer (in fact, he fondly referred to me as his counterpart as “RCR, CEO”) of multiple businesses and he is survived by his wonderful wife Carole and two Bay Area resident children, his daughter Amanda (together with hubby SoCal football rock star Mike Ferguson and their two wonderful children, grandchildren to Fred) and son Kurt.
Simply stated, Fred is already and will continue to be sorely missed.
For over three decades now, Fred’s primary focus in life was the care of his wife Carole (who has advancing Parkinson’s disease); his entire life and travel schedule was based on her care, with he as her primary caregiver. In fact, each year, Fred and I would discuss whether he would be able to return to our Extravaganza (with guitar and songbook in hand) and each year that decision was driven by Carole’s health and well-being. One such year, at my suggestion, Fred, as shown above, was able to fish with us as, together, we had Carole come with him and stay with us at Headquarters while he successfully did so—the first pic being of Fred handing out his Fish Whisperer guide gift along with his co-grandparent “Gene, Gene The Fishing Machine” Ferguson; the second being of “The Guitar” holding his long sought after brown trout addition to our Twenty Inch Club and the third of the bunch featuring Fred and his ever-present guitar serenading then Group Three on our back Montana porch…thereby giving life and meaning to his true Montana name, Fred “The Guitar” Johnson.
We do and will miss you pal; and, as the highest honor I can bestow upon you, I hereby anoint you, posthumously, “Extravaganzer Eternal”.
Godspeed, my dear friend, Godspeed.
Rock Creek Ron
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We do and will miss you pal; and, as the highest honor I can bestow upon you, I hereby anoint you, posthumously, “Extravaganzer Eternal”.
Godspeed, my dear friend, Godspeed.
Rock Creek Ron
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