OBITUARIES : Roger Johnson; Was Liaison to Nixon Friends
Roger Johnson, a retired oil company executive recruited by Richard M. Nixon during his presidency “to keep old friends friendly,” died Sunday of cancer in Washington.
The Glendale native and graduate of USC Law School was 81.
Early in the Nixon Administration, the President found he did not have the time to keep in touch with old friends. He asked Johnson, one of those old friends who had known Nixon since the President’s college days in Whittier, to leave his Superior Oil Co. vice presidency for the White House.
Special Assistant
Installed there as special assistant to the President, Johnson--in a 1971 interview--said his phone and office were readily available to old Nixon confidants.
And “I can see him anytime,” Johnson said of the President.
Later Johnson worked in the State Department’s Office of Protocol before retiring in the mid-1970s.
A widower, Johnson is survived by a son, two daughters, two sisters and 12 grandchildren.
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