Daniel Frohman Johnson

Obituary

Daniel (Dan) Frohman Johnson passed away at the age of 86 in the early morning hours of December 25, 2025, in Naples, Florida, where he and his wife, Sandy, resided for eight months of the year, the other four in Stanley, NC. Dan was born on August 6, 1939, in Charleston, West Virginia, to parents C. Frohman Johnson and Dorothy McWhorter Johnson.



As a young man, Dan was an academic prodigy. He graduated from Stonewall Jackson High School in Charleston in 1957, having served as student council president and valedictorian of his graduating class.  In 1956, Dan was recognized as the outstanding rising senior student council president by the National Association of Student Councils (NASC), which awarded Dan a 6-week tour of Europe that summer. Dan gained the attention of several of the most prestigious universities in the country, which included Princeton University, the University of Chicago, and Columbia University, all of which offered him full academic scholarships. Dan chose to attend Columbia in New York City, from which he earned his Bachelor of Arts in 1961. As a freshman, Dan competed for the Columbia Lions in the Ivy League on the junior varsity swim team. He also joined the Sigma Chi fraternity. It was during his sophomore year at Columbia that he eloped to Kentucky to marry his high school sweetheart, the late Nancy Wells Johnson, who was then attending the University of Kentucky.



During the summer break of 1959, Dan and Nancy welcomed their first child, Daniel Frohman Johnson, Jr., in Charleston. Within a week of Daniel Jr’s birth, Dan’s family took up residence on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York. For the next six years, he earned his BA and eventually his PhD in Behavioral Psychology from Columbia. In 1962, Dan and Nancy added their second child, Kyle McWhorter Johnson, to their family in New York. During the summer of 1965, Dan moved his young family to Blacksburg, Virginia, where he took a job as a professor of psychology at Virginia Polytechnic Institute (VPI, now known as Virginia Tech), eventually earning tenure until 1981, before transitioning into private practice as a consultant. In 1972, Dan and Nancy became co-proprietors of a retail furniture and interior design business in Christiansburg, Virginia, called Country Manor (which included a studio at the Daniel Boone Hotel in Charleston, West Virginia, under the name of Nancy Wells Johnson Interior Design), which operated until 1987.



In 1984, Dan joined Organizational Consultants Inc (OCI) in Charlotte, NC, as a managing partner until 1993, when he was hired by First Union National Bank (later known as Wachovia and then Wells Fargo). Dan initially served to help the bank implement Quality Management Systems (QMS) and later transitioned to the bank’s Float Management team until retirement in 2008. The timing of his retirement turned out to be a blessing, because he was able to devote his time and attention to the caretaking of Nancy, who simultaneously began a valiant battle with cancer that would last a little more than 3 years until her death in January 2012.



In 2013, Dan met Sandy Schuler and found love again. Dan and Sandy married in July 2014, in a private ceremony in North Myrtle Beach, SC. Dan and Sandy soon took up residence in Cornelius, NC, where they resided until 2024. The couple loved the sunshine and warm climes of Florida. So, before 2024, they would spend the winters in Naples. But during the summer of 2024, they became permanent residents of Florida and moved part-time to a residence attached to Sandy’s daughter’s house in Stanley, NC. Dan treated Sandy’s daughters (particularly Sherrie) like his own, and Mitchell, Sandy’s grandson, like his very own grandson. They, in turn, treated Dan with the love and affection of a father and grandfather.



Dan was always known for being a spellbinding charmer to everyone who knew him and was a man of many talents. One of these was as an artist, particularly in drawings and renderings. Over the many years, among many projects, he drew and designed company logos for businesses in Blacksburg, Charleston (WV), and Charlotte. During his later years, Dan would continue to dabble in various forms of canvas art.



Dan is survived by his wife, Sandy Johnson; his sons, Daniel Frohman Johnson Jr. and Kyle McWhorter Johnson; his grandson, Kyle McWhorter Johnson Jr.; his stepdaughter, Sherrie Richards; and his step-grandson, Mitchell Richards; his brothers, David Clinton Johnson of Hurricane, WV, and Dean McWhorter Johnson of New Haven, CT, and his sister, Debrah Ann Johnson Rhinehart of Canton, Georgia.


A memorial service, presided by the Reverend Stephen McWhorter, will be held on Saturday, January 10, at 1:30 p.m. at St. Margaret’s Episcopal Church, 8515 Rea Road, Waxhaw, NC 28173, with a reception to follow. Instead of flowers, donations may be made to the Dementia Society of America in Daniel Frohman Johnson’s memory.

Memorial Service on January 10 in Charlotte area

A memorial service, presided by the Reverend Stephen McWhorter, will be held on Saturday, January 10, at 1:30 p.m. at St. Margaret’s Episcopal Church, 8515 Rea Road, Waxhaw, NC 28173, with a reception to follow. 

Reception After Funeral Service

Reception to Follow at Red Rocks Cafe: Strawberry Hill, 4223 Providence Rd #8

Charlotte, NC 28211. Directions to Red Rocks will be provided at the service.

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