Jim asked his granddaughter Samantha to write his obituary, and she produced this heartfelt account of her grandfather’s life and character:

Jim Johnson—known to his friends as “Jimmy” or “Jace” and later, when he moved to Arizona, “Buck”—passed away in the early morning on Sunday, July 25, 2021. It was a peaceful end to a long fight with cancer; his wife of 58 years, Barbara Johnson, was by his side, along with their son, James L. Johnson Jr. (“J.J.”), and youngest daughter, Heather Aroesty. Jim is also survived by JJ’s wife, Shubha, and Heather’s husband, Howie, along with his grandchildren: Samantha, Sabrina, and Austin Morse; Matthew and Phoebe Aroesty; and James Braeden, Garrett, and Trevor Johnson. He was preceded in death by his daughter, Sandy, and her husband, Carter.

Jim will be remembered for his unique style, wit, and strong work ethic. His one-of-a-kind character is captured by the two paths he followed after high school at Highland Park: Jim studied Theater at Lake Forest College (1963) before earning a BS in Business Administration and Management from Roosevelt University (1965) and his CPA from Northwestern University (1966). Jim was always a performer at heart. Whether he was selling airplane parts around the world, presenting the services of BUCKAZ Communications, officiating his granddaughter’s wedding, or leading the Passovr seder for his family. Jim’s charisma and vitality were electric. Success in business and happiness with his family and friends naturally followed.

Jim was always thinking ahead, and had a powerful drive to accomplish his vision. While he was still in college, Jim’s first company was a start-up that financed and leased aircrafts. He set up a leading program for a major manufacturer of business machines with a young upstart company selling hamburgers. That company became the largest hamburger franchisor in the world. Jim worked in the aeronautics industry for many years, ultimately becoming CEO, President, and COO of a distribution company for electronic components for the international aerospace and airline industry. 90% of the business was done outside of the United States. Jim spent a good deal of time conducting business in person on a worldwide basis, travelling to the Pacific Rim, Middle East, Europe, Scandinavia, South America, and Mexico.

In the mid-1990s, Jim and Barbara realized their dream of moving to Arizona, where they were ultimately joined by their daughters, Sandy and Heather, with their respective families. In July 1997, Jim built LUCREX and subsequently BUCKAZ, which provides print production services including graphic design, printing, mailing, warehousing, and fulfillment. Buck (and here I’ll switch to “Buck” because that’s what he came to be called) remained actively involved with the company through the end of his life, when he passed management to his son-in-law, Howie Aroesty.

I (his eldest granddaughter, Samantha) include these details about Jim’s career because he asked me to when he requested that I write his obituary. After all, as the social media manager for BUCKAZ from 2015-2017 and the creator of Buck’s LinkedIn profile, I’m qualified for the job. My grandfather took pride in all he accomplished, and how he was able to provide such a beautiful, exciting, comfortable life for his family. I admired his work immensely.

But there are other attributes of Buck that are worth mentioning. Indeed, to me, at least, they are the most important. Once, when I was a very little girl, my parents dropped me off at my grandparents’ house while the went on a (rare) date. I bawled my eyes out for my mom. Buck scooped me up, put me in the back seat of his car, and drove around the neighborhood for who-knows-how-long, “searching” for my parents until I fell asleep. When I was older, in middle school, and in that terrible phase of adolescence that is all self-consciousness and timidity, Buck bought a new camera and took headshots of me while we were relaxing by the pool. He said, “Sam, you could be a model!”  And I felt like a superstar. When I was in graduate school and living in los Angeles on a paltry stipend from the university, Buck asked me to work for him developing BUCKAZ’s social media. He treated me like a real consultant; his gravity rand respect gave me newfound confidence in my skills as a young professional.

Buck was not simply present through every stage of my life—he was a significant force, encouraging, influencing, loving. As I grew up and knew him better, I realized he was the family member whose character I most resembled. Knowing this, I licensed Buck as a minister and asked him to officiate my wedding. He wrote the entire ceremony with his quintessential style: a perfect mixture of cleverness and humor with wisdom and deep sentiment. It was unforgettable.

Buck will go town in jour family history as an inimical legend: a towering man who could alternately wear ripped jean shorts, blue moon sunglasses, a cowboy hat, and a leather purse with multiple handguns. Chips, salsa, and wine were always ready at happy hour, and ruby port with espresso appeared after dinner. He was a man of habit, whose steadiness served as a rock to his whole family

He will be forever loved, forever missed, and forever remembered.  

The following memorial was posted by the class a day after Jim died:

Jim died peacefully of cancer July 25, 2021, in Scottsdale, Ariz., surrounded by family. Everybody got to say their goodbyes. He leaves his wife, Barbara Greenfield HPHS ’60, son J.J., daughter Heather and eight grandchildren. Daughter Sandy died last year.

He was a lifelong entrepreneur, starting and selling corporations, beginning with a company while he was still in college. He was simply a business whiz, venturing first into aviation and real estate, purchasing a private airport, then running a publicly-traded aircraft and aircraft parts distributor, followed by an international aerospace parts distributor, then finally a communications services company. 

As a youngster at Lincoln and Edgewood schools and then HPHS, he was invariably cheerful, open, eager to be a friend to everyone. Back we called him Jimmy or Jace. In Arizona everybody knew him as Buck. And his final company was BUCKAZ Communications LLC, whose symbols were a western-style belt buckle and a bucking bronco. The Phoenix company provides printing, direct mail, consulting, graphic design, warehousing and fulfillment.  

Chicago-area native Sue Mulkey, chief operating officer of the Phoenix-based company, knew Buck well for 15 years: “He was my father away from my father, my mentor, my friend, so many things to me.”

BUCKAZ, dating to 2015, has a holding company, LUCREX, where Buck worked starting in 1997. From 1994 to 1997 he was president of a soft-drink bottler and CFO of a licensee and concentrate company in Arizona. From 1984 to 1994 he was CEO of an international aerospace distribution company based in New York; he traveled worldwide because 90 percent of business was outside the U.S. From 1972 to 1983 he was COO and then CEO of an aircraft parts distributor and dealer in the Midwest, negotiating the acquisition of a public company and taking it private. During that time sales grew from $33 million to $100 million.

He began college at Texas A&M, switched after a year to Lake Forest College and then obtained a degree in business administration and management from Roosevelt. He focused on accounting. In 1963, still in college, he started a company that financed and leased aircraft. Then in 1968 he ran a short-term aircraft rental company that purchased a private airport and franchised rental offices in 33 cities and more than 400 aircraft.