Gay Johnson, devoted to Awbury Arboretum

Gay Gilpin Johnson, 91, whose life's work was preserving Awbury Arboretum, a privately held park in East Germantown, died of an infection Thursday, July 7, at Chestnut Hill Hospital.

Mrs. Johnson not only volunteered at the 55-acre park, she also lived there for six decades, in one of the homes on the property near the Washington Lane SEPTA station.

She provided management and fund-raising, and collected examples of the arboretum's rich history.

She helped establish the Awbury Neighbors Association, and in 1985 pushed to make the Awbury Arboretum Association a nonprofit so that it could own and operate the park as a private entity.

The arboretum is open to the public from dawn to dusk 365 days a year.

"The neighbors association would have foundered without Gay's quietly sending out dues reminders, organizing the annual fair and plant sale, and inspiring burning-out members to continued participation," said Harold Ashe, past head of the neighbors association.

She also started the Arboretum Nature Program, and kept it funded through her "genius" as a grant writer.

"It would not be what it now is without Gay's determination," Ashe said.

The green swath, acquired in 1852 as a summer retreat by wealthy Quaker merchant Francis Cope, was set aside in 1916 by the Cope family for the "quiet enjoyment of nature" and educational purposes. It has no Quaker affiliation now. Mrs. Johnson was looking to safeguard the park for perpetuity.

"Her participation was not just in the arboretum, but also working with the historical documents relating to the Cope family," said her son, Jeffrey G. Johnson. She raised money to have the documents historically certified and assembled into an exhibition.

Born in West Chester, Mrs. Johnson graduated from the Baldwin School in 1943 and Vassar College in 1947.

After college, Mrs. Johnson worked at the College Cevenol in Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, France. She stayed in touch with the friends she made there for the rest of her life.

In the late 1940s, she returned home and worked for the American Friends Service Committee. She met Eric Johnson through the committee and married him in 1948. The couple ran the International Quaker Center in Paris from 1952 to 1954.

"Gay's gentle disposition, perpetual smile, and endless patience served them well in dealing with traditionally contentious French" Quakers, Stephen G. Cary, past head of the service committee, wrote in a letter presented to Mrs. Johnson in 1999 on her 75th birthday.

Mrs. Johnson attended the Germantown Monthly Meeting most of her life, and joined the meeting in 2014. "Everybody was happy that she finally did that," her son said.

She served on the board of directors of the Northwest Interfaith Movement in Mount Airy, and was especially interested in the organization's Dialogue for Racial Justice program. The group disbanded in 2012.

Besides her son, she is survived by daughters Rebecca W. and Emily C., and four grandchildren. Her husband died in 1994.

Plans were pending for a memorial service in the fall at Germantown Friends Meeting.

Donations may be made to the Awbury Arboretum Association via http://awbury.org/give; Germantown Friends School via www.germantownfriends.org/support-gfs; or the Germantown Monthly Meeting via http://gmm.gfsnet.org

bcook@phillynews.com

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