Richard Salisbury “Dick” Johnson (1930-2012) and Patsy Ann “Pat” Seaton (1931- ) were both delivered, nearly a year apart, by Dr. W. W. George at a maternity home on Kenilworth Boulevard, West Palm Beach. Richard is the son of Richard Green Johnson, Jr. and Catharine Elizabeth Quinn; Pat is the daughter of Clyde Hall Seaton, Sr. and Lillian Lorraine Roe.
Pat Seaton attended Central and Southboro elementary schools, Conniston Junior High, and Palm Beach High School. Richard attended four schools: the one-room Pahokee Elementary School on Bacom Point Road, its larger replacement, Southboro Elementary, and Pahokee High School, where he graduated in 1948.
When Richard left by train for freshman year at Duke University, he met his roommate, whose girlfriend, Pat Seaton, had come to see him off; Richard married Pat in 1951. After he graduated with a B. A. in business administration from Duke in 1952, Richard had several job offers from across the country. The Johnsons decided that since people worked all their lives to retire to Palm Beach County, they would raise their family hereóit also seemed a pretty good place to make a living. Richard and Pat returned to Palm Beach County and raised five children: Patricia Ann, Catharine Lorraine, Helene Hall, Richard Salisbury, Jr. , and Scott Allen.
After their father died in 1957, Johnson and his siblings rented out the 275-acre Johnson Farms in Pahokee, which had been in the family for three generations. When sugar became a viable crop about 1960, Johnson entered into an agreement that endured, for U. S. Sugar to harvest and mill the sugar cane he raises. Their crop was one of the first to be milled at the Bryant Sugar Mill.
Meanwhile, Johnson went into the insurance business, first with S. D. Morris, a former mayor of West Palm Beach; and then at Cornelius, Johnson & Clark (CJC), which grew into the county’s largest independent insurance agency in the 1980s before it was sold, eventually becoming part of Wells Fargo and Company.
Johnson, William C. Clark, and others started Flagler National Bank in 1974, the first national bank to be chartered in West Palm Beach in 38 years. In 1978 the bank’s principals built six-story Flagler Center on the former site of a Cadillac dealership at 501 South Flagler Drive. Besides the bank, CJC and other principals’ firms became tenants; they later added a fifteen-story tower to the south. In 1988 Johnson was elected chairman of Flagler Bank Corp. , the holding company, as well as Flagler National Bank, which was sold to Sun Trust Bank. Richard established the Johnson Investment Group in West Palm Beach.
The Johnsons’ philanthropy has been focused on leadership and support, often serving together, to benefit education and healthcare through such institutions as the Hospice Foundation of Palm Beach County, the Rehabilitation Center for Children and Adults, Brady Urological Institute at Johns Hopkins University (where they have both served on the board), Duke University Medical Center (where they established the Richard and Pat Johnson University Professorship in Cardiovascular Genomics), St. Mary’s Medical Center, the Junior League of the Palm Beaches, and the Palm Beach County chapter of the American Heart Association. Pat chaired many events, especially for St. Mary’s, where Dick was chairman of the board.
Palm Beach Atlantic College recognized Pat with the Women of Distinction Award (2001) and Richard with the American Free Enterprise Medal (1995).
Each successive generation of the Johnson family contributed to the growth and excellence of Palm Beach County, while maintaining an archive to document the family’s history, and membership in the Daughters of the American Revolution. The family presence in Palm Beach County dates to the 1880s (see Bell and Quinn bios). All of the Johnson children continue to live in Palm Beach County, continuing the tradition.