Dennis C. Johnson, Jr. transitioned into eternity on Saturday, December 7, 2024, at his home in Bremen, Georgia while under the loving care of his wife, Elouise. Dennis was born on August 15, 1939, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the first child of Juanita Douglas Johnson and Dennis Claudius Johnson, Sr. Dennis Jr., known to family and old friends as "Jip," may have earned his nickname from a celebratory blues song that his father wrote titled Let Me Tell You 'bout the Jippy Rip, but the exact provenance of the name is somewhat in doubt.

Dennis completed confirmation classes and accepted the sacrament of baptism at St. Thomas African Episcopal Church in West Philadelphia. He grew up surrounded by grandparents, uncles and cousins, enjoying daily lunches at the home of his grandma, Emma White Johnson, whose South Carolina remedies enabled him to rarely, if ever, miss a day of school due to sickness. He collected stamps and coins and raised tropical fish in his bedroom on Paxon Street. He took piano lessons from his maternal grandmother, Violet E. McCoy, and spent summers at Camp Emlen where his natural leadership skills and athletic ability flourished.

He loved basketball, but after realizing that he couldn't stretch his body to seven feet tall, he indulged his talent for running. As a West Philadelphia High School Speedboy (Class of 1957), he ran several miles a day around "The Wall" at the old Provident Mutual Insurance building at 46th and Haverford. This culminated in his winning the Philadelphia Public League Cross Country Championship in 1956 and the Public League Championship for the one mile run in the spring of 1957. These accomplishments earned him a full scholarship to Penn State University where he lettered in Cross Country and Track and was inducted into Penn State's Wall of Fame. During his college years, Dennis was initiated into the Delta Eta Chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Incorporated in the Philadelphia City Chapter's summer 1960 pledge class and became a member of the fraternity's Delta Theta Chapter at Penn State University.

Upon graduation in June 1961, he began his career as a social studies teacher at Trenton's Junior 5, and Philadelphia's Vaux Junior High school. He then won a fellowship for former college athletes to attend a program at the University of Pittsburgh where he earned a master's degree and a Ph.D. in Counseling Education in 1972.

While completing his doctoral thesis, Dennis served as Principal at Holy Rosary School in Pittsburgh. He then went on to become Dean of Students at Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn, New York. Having become an expert in urban education, Dennis served as Principal at schools in Trenton, New Jersey; Boston, Massachusetts; and Washington, D.C. where he led Ballou High School and Mary Church Terrell Elementary.

Dennis leaves behind four sons: Dennis C. Johnson III of Miami, Florida (Loida), Stephen Hunter Johnson, Esq. of Miami, Florida (Gabrielle), Channing L. Johnson of Fort Washington, Maryland (Shari), and Chandler L. Johnson of Washington, D.C. (Brittany). He is survived by his wife, Elouise; sister-in-law, Margarette Dukes; brother-in-law, Harvis "Perry" Cosby (who he met in Boston while courting Elouise) and the Cosby family in Georgia who doted on him during his retirement. He will be missed by his youngest brother, Eric D. Johnson (Gwendolyn) of Bluffton, SC, and his beloved grandchildren: Daniel, David ("Dash"), Deion, Harper, Hunter, Adrian, Addison, Zori, Amara, and Xavier. His cousin/sisters Barbara White and Carolyn Douglass mourn his loss, as do nephews Marvin Johnson, Jr., Eric H. Johnson, Galen Johnson, and his niece, Dr. Monica Johnson -Taylor ("Yum-Yum"). This is only a portion of the cousins, nieces, nephews and friends who will remember him with love and laughter.

Dennis was preceded in death by his parents; brother, Marvin H. Johnson, Sr.; and Marvin's wife, Tanya.

Dennis wants his many partners from Philly and DC to know that it was simply, "Time for me to hang it up. It's a wise man that knows when it's time to go!"