W9WQT - April 24, 2017

---

Robert L. 'Bob' Johnson Whispering Pines, NC QCWA # 27283 Chapter 126 Moore County ARS

First Call: WN9WQT

Brigadier General Robert (Bob) Loren Johnson, age 100, of Whispering Pines, passed away on Monday, April 24, 2017 at FirstHealth Hospice House.

A visitation will be held on Friday, April 28, 2017 at Cox memorial Funeral Home from 6:00 until 8:00 p.m.

A Funeral Mass will be held on Saturday, April 29, 2017 at 1:30 p.m. at St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church in Southern Pines. Burial will follow at The Johnson Family Farm Cemetery in Whispering Pines. Reception following the burial at Whispering Pines Community Center, Rays Bridge Road, Whispering Pines.

Survivors are wife Shirley of 29 years; sons, Blaise Johnson of Ca., Bretton Johnson of Tx., daughter, Bonnie Robertson and husband David of Gainesville, Fla.; step-son Matt Youngerman and wife Renee of Aberdeen, N.C.; grandsons Jeremiah, Matthew Johnson, Brantly, and Blain Roberson, Arianna and Alanna Robertson, Riley and Nick Youngerman Gracie Youngerman and Aidan Youngerman and great-grandchildren Aiden Johnson and Emmerson Youngerman. He was the most loving kind and gentle father, husband, and grandfather. The youngest man that ever lived!

Condolences may be sent to www.coxmemorialfuneralhome.com.

The family has entrusted services to Cox Memorial Funeral Home & Crematory of Vass.

The village of Pinehurst in North Carolina is most often associated with the sport of golf; what most do not realize is that Pinehurst is associated with a sport older than golf that dates back to the 6th century B.C. in Persia. That sport is polo. Pinehurst was also once an active and vibrant center for the mounted sport of polo, thriving before, during and after World War II. Even fewer realize that today, one of the few remaining celebrated players from those three eras, retired Brig. Gen. Bob Johnson resides here in the Sandhills. Johnson's polo playing career spanned a remarkable seven decades, from the years of the Great Depression during the 1930s through 2004.

Born in 1916, Johnson was a child of the Midwest, growing up in Chicago, before attending the University of Illinois in 1934. These interwar years were the golden age of polo in the United States, with many colleges having a program, usually associated with the Army Reserve Officers Training Course (ROTC), of that day. Always interested in polo, he went out for polo as a freshman, made the squad, and rode during his entire collegiate career. Practicing every afternoon after class, the "Fighting Illini" polo team competed in the Big Ten college circuit. Johnson became rather proficient, while riding nine months out of the year, competing in both outdoor and indoor matches, and normally riding as a No. 1 position, the most offense-oriented position on the field.

After graduation and commissioning as a second lieutenant in 1938, Johnson was assigned to the horse mounted 124th Field Artillery Regiment of the Illinois National Guard and rode in the regimental polo team, jumping team and ceremonial Mounted Escort Platoon. "You could really tell the difference between those officers who played polo and those who did not," he recalls, adding that the "polo playing officers knew more about horses, and were the elite of the regiment."

As war began in Europe, the Army horse artillery began to turn in their horses for trucks. Called to active duty in early 1941, Johnson was assigned to the 11th Airborne Division at Camp Mackall in late 1942, where he qualified on gliders. While stationed at Mackall, he discovered, to his delight, that competitive polo was still being played in nearby Pinehurst on the weekends, with a traditional Carolina pig picking and cocktail party afterwards. The Sandhills Polo Club of Pinehurst was the local squad before the war, hosting matches to include an annual tournament for civilian and military teams from Fort Bragg. World War II was not to be all horses and sport for Johnson, who fought in the Philippines with the 11th Airborne, commanding the 674th Field Artillery Battalion, and qualifying as a parachutist, before an assignment to occupation duty in Japan.

After the war, Johnson continued to play polo, remained active in the Army reserves, and was promoted to the rank of brigadier general, before retirement from reserves and his civilian career at Con Edison. Returning to the Sandhills in 1980, with his North Carolina native wife, he settled into an enjoyable retirement, but one without a local polo team. Resolving to remedy the situation, Johnson became a tireless advocate and soon had polo back in the Sandhills, after building a superb field for practice and tournaments at the Pinehurst Harness Track off Highway 5. He had to give up polo at the age of 87.

In 2003 while standing up in his stirrups for a shot in a match, he had a nearly fatal fall when he went over the head of his galloping mount. However, Johnson is quick to point out, with a smile and twinkle in his eye, "I got back on and finished that match," in what was, unfortunately, his last polo match in Pinehurst.

Without Johnson's dynamic involvement and leadership, the Pinehurst Polo Club slipped into inactivity a few years later, but all was not lost. The Carolina Polocrosse Club (CPC) soon discovered the superb polo field at the track, which quickly became a favored venue for weekly practice and annual tournaments, keeping the polo spirit alive. "King of the One Horse Sports," polocrosse is a blend of lacrosse and polo, which originated in Australia. The local polocrosse scene is active, and the Carolina Club is the largest in the eastern United States.

One of the Sandhills, few remaining combat leaders from World War II, this grand man of Pinehurst polo remains active at age 98, enjoying his retirement with his wife, Shirley, in their Whispering Pines lake home. The general can often be seen at Carolina Polocrosse Club tournaments, held in May and September, on the polo field at the Pinehurst Harness Track he built from scratch. He is an enthusiastic supporter of the Carolina Polocrosse Club, and a BG Robert L. Johnson Perpetual Award for Best Sportsman was established in his honor in 2013, to recognize the most outstanding sportsperson, male or female, selected during the May tournament. Johnson will not fade away, as many old soldiers do, but will always be remembered in the Sandhills of North Carolina as a skilled player, true officer and gentleman, and dedicated advocate of one of the most difficult equine disciplines to master, the ancient sport of polo.