Christopher Joseph Johnson

Christopher Joseph Johnson was born on Jan. 31, 1977, in Boulder City, Nevada. His family lived in Death Valley, California, and he always considered that as his place of birth.

He died peacefully on Oct. 8, 2022, from complications of high blood pressure, the silent killer. His family was by his side.

Chris lived his first few years in the desert of Death Valley, and he never let go of the love of the desert and warm weather. He spent his grammar school years living at the Fort Clatsop National Memorial and attended Lewis and Clark Grade School.

He moved to Astoria with his family in 1992 and attended Astoria High School, graduating in 1995.

He and Tess were together since 2005, married in 2010, and moved to Monmouth and later to Nehalem. At the time of his death, Chris was living with his parents and brother in Astoria.

Chris loved his daughters, and would belt out “Mack the Knife,” or torture them with bad dad jokes, and they loved when he did voices from TV and movie scenes. He would let them paint his finger and toe nails. He helped them with 4-H rabbits, cows and fair artistic entries. He was quite the artist.

Chris was a gentle, kind person always doing things for others, even before they asked for help.

Chris was an avid “Star Wars” fan and collector, and the only thing he loved more were his daughters. He loved comic book characters, “The Goonies,” and anything Disney. He loved to create Lego models and make plaster models and scenery for model trains and Halloween displays.

Halloween was his favorite holiday, and he would spend the whole year planning and making his costumes. He most recently was creating a bounty hunter outfit from “Star Wars.” He even had a tattoo of a “Star Wars” action figure logo on his leg. He loved to tinker with plants, especially cactus, and he was the family grilling king. He was a Civil War reenactor since he was 16 years old.

He is survived by his wife, Tess Johnson; daughters, Nea and Elli; adopted daughter, Yaz; parents, Curt and Rosemary Johnson; brother, Sean; adopted brother, Jason Mullaney; former sister-in-law, Allison Abbot; nephew, Odin; niece, Maddox; and various aunts, uncles and cousins in Virginia and South Carolina.

A service will be held at 1 p.m. on Saturday at Caldwell’s Luce-Layton Mortuary, 1165 Franklin Ave. A reception will follow at Holiday Inn Express & Suites.

A celebration of life will be held in January, with more information as it becomes available.

In lieu of flowers, we request that donations be made to a fund for his daughters, the Wells Fargo Memorial Fund for Chris Johnson, or to the Clatsop County Historical Society Film Museum.