BRIDGTON – Donald M. Johnson, of Hunts Drive, Windham, passed away on his 86th birthday, Sept. 25, 2007.

Mr. Johnson was born on Sept. 25, 1921, in Quincy, Mass., the second of four sons of Albin Ringholt and Ruth Buckley Johnson. He attended Quincy schools and was a noted football quarterback at North Quincy High School, eventually being voted into their hall of fame in 1994. His football prowess resulted in a scholarship to Colby College in 1940, from which he graduated in 1947.

His college education was divided by World War II. He graduated from Midshipman’s School at Columbia University in New York and was assigned to a U.S. Navy Destroyer Escort in the Pacific Theater, and was in Japan on VJ Day.

After his graduation from Colby, he accepted a job as a teacher and football coach at Paris High School in Paris, and in 1948 he married Mary Elizabeth Twitchell of Paris. He subsequently taught at Boothbay Harbor High School and Walton School in Auburn.

He then entered graduate school, earning his M.A, in education from Harvard University, having had the aim of becoming a secondary school headmaster. However, at the conclusion of his M.A. program, he was recruited by the Rand Corp. as a senior research and computer analyst. Two years later he was transferred to Systems Development Corp. (SDC), a subsidiary of Rand Corp., as a systems specialist. During the Cuban missile crisis, Mr. Johnson was part of a team of analysts in charge of the tracing and dispatch of fighter planes patrolling the East Coast. This work continued with his assignment as a consulting analyst to the NORAD base in North Bay, Ontario, Canada, from 1963 to 1968.

From 1967 to 1970, Mr. Johnson was an SDC civilian consultant to the U.S. military assigned to the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., where he was part of team that developed early computer “software” for the coordination of air defense and air-to-submarine contact during the Vietnam War period. In 1970, he was transferred to the Johnsville Naval Air Station outside of Philadelphia as a senior analyst for air defense.

He retired from SDC in 1972 and accepted a position as a physics and chemistry instructor at Bridgton Academy in North Bridgton. He also coached lacrosse, and in 1974, led the BA team to a position as Maine state champions.

In 1980, Mr. Johnson was again recalled to service as a systems analyst with SDC, which had accepted the challenge of computerizing the New York state telephone system. Stationed in Albany, he joined a team of his old compatriots from the “Washington years” to design a software system to enhance communications throughout New York state.

He retired from the New York state position in 1983 and returned to Maine. From 1983 until 2004 he lived in Bridgton, where he enjoyed researching and collecting art, particularly Maine 19th- and 20th-century artists, with his wife and sons.

He was instrumental in saving an historic structure in Bridgton in the 1980s, when he moved the 1789 “Church Parsonage” to save it from demolition. The house was found to have historic Rufus Porter murals in two rooms, and today is the Rufus Porter Museum in Bridgton.

He was an avid fisherman on both ocean and lakes, and loved keeping up with the Red Sox and the Boston Bruins hockey team.

After a short time living in Topsham, Mr. Johnson and his wife moved to Windham in 2006.

He is survived by his wife of 59 years, Mary T. Johnson; a daughter and son-in-law, Marcia and Randall Greason of Windham; sons, Thomas B. of South Berwick and D. Eric of North Bridgton; two much beloved grandchildren, Elizabeth M. Greason and husband, Joshua Edwards, of Dubai, UAE, and Matthew L. Greason of Hartford, Conn.; and a brother, Kenneth F. Johnson of Squantum, Mass.; along with many nieces and nephews.