The Reverend Harold Milton Johnson, 83, of Kansas City, Missouri, passed peacefully on May 19, 2025.
Harold was born on October 7, 1941, to Harry and Phebe Johnson. He graduated from Holden, MO High School in 1959 where he met and married, Karen Moomey, on May 24, 1959.
Following high school, Harold graduated from Central Methodist University in 1962 and received a Master Degree of Divinity from St. Paul’s School of Theology in Kansas City, Missouri in 1966.
Harold pastored his first two churches, Blackwater United Methodist Church, and Grand Pass United Methodist Church while an undergraduate at Central Methodist at the age of eighteen. He was the pastor of Clinton United Methodist Church in the early to mid 1980’s. He pastored a total of seventeen churches during his ministerial career, often serving multiple rural churches at one time and preaching to multiple small churches each Sunday.
During his pastoral service in the Missouri West Conference, Harold served as Coordinator of Adult Education; Coordinator of Family Ministries; Chairperson of the Conference Board of Ordained Ministry for four years; Chairperson of the MO Area Commission on Higher Education and Campus Ministry for four years; and Chairperson of the United Campus Ministries for UMKC.
While leading a church and being heavily involved in the Missouri West Conference was his forte, he also was an active community servant and served as Executive Director of Three Trails Habitat for Humanity of Independence, MO; assisted in the organizational formation of the Eastern Jackson County and the Northland Habitat Affiliate; served as the disaster coordinator of both the Kansas City North and South Districts and was the coordinator during the flood of 1993, organizing relief efforts in Ray County. Harold led a MO Conference group of volunteers to work in Louisiana following Hurricane Andrew in 1992; led two disaster relief trips to Tennessee following tornados in 1995 and 1998 and chaired the Inter-Faith Disaster Relief Committee of the Metro area following the flood of 1998 in Kansas City; he received the Excelsior Springs Chamber of Commerce Outstanding Citizen of the year for his role in establishing the Senior Citizen Council of Excelsior Springs; Harold was also honored by the Community Blood Center of Kansas City, as a twenty-two gallon blood donor.
In addition to his role as pastor, he was a devoted husband to his wife, devoted dad to his three children and devoted Papa to nine grandchildren and seven great grandchildren. He loved family gatherings and enjoyed his backyard pool parties with his family and loved swimming with his grandkids. He loved sports and never missed any of his kids’ athletic events and seldom missed an athletic event of his grandkids. Despite his busy career and schedule, he always made time for his family.
He loved people and had a special place in his heart for the “least, last and lost” and tried to serve as many of those who would let him. He was a person of honesty and integrity and a deeply spiritual person who loved the Lord and had a gift and love for speaking and preaching (loudly!) He often said, “I believe there is only one race, the human race and all humankind are God’s Children.” He not only believed that, he led his life based on that belief.
He was preceded in death by his parents; his son, F. Randall Johnson and his great grandson, Ollin Justus Amos. He is survived by his wife Karen; daughter Kerrie ( Allen) Amos; daughter Mindie ( Mike) Thomas; grandchildren, Rachel (Scott) Matias, Travis Johnson, Cody (April) Amos, Bo (Michele) Amos, Derrick Shockley, Michael Thomas, Mariah (TJ) Thurman, Tyler Thomas and Taylor (John) Maynie; great grandchildren Rylie Matias, Cameron Matias, Aiden Amos, Nilus Amos, Harper Amos and Braxton Amos and many other extended family members.
“Harold, Dad, Papa - we will miss you greatly and we are so proud of the man that you were and so thankful for the leadership and love that you gave to your family and the countless people whose lives you impacted.”
There will be a small family gathering to honor Harold as he chose not to have a public memorial service. Expressions of sympathy can be sent to Karen Johnson at Box 158 9101 North Ambassador Drive, Kansas City, MO 64154 or at porterfuneralhome.com. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in Harold’s memory to Truman Heritage Habitat for Humanity at trumanhabitat.org, a charity that he loved and believed in.
