Alfred Herbert Johns Jr.

Alfred Herbert Johns, Jr. passed away peacefully in the evening of July 18th,2025.  Al was born in November 1935 in Southwestern Michigan in the small town of Baroda to Alfred Sr. and Evelyn Johns.   He was the only son of four siblings.  He proudly served his country in the United States Marine Corps from 1956-1960.  After being honorably discharged, Al worked first as an automotive and farm machinery mechanic briefly and then for nearly 40 he worked in the sand mining industry building the plant he ultimately ran. Many of the current phenolic resin heat set sand molds in use today by several major auto manufacture foundry operations bear Al’s initials from his research and development work in the 1960s-1990’s.   If Al’s life could be defined by any one thing, it was he loved to fish.  It was well beyond a weekend hobby and was more of a passion.  Living on the Western shore of Michigan, Al spent countless hours trolling for coho, steelhead and chinook salmon in an open fishing boat on Lake Michigan.  That wasn’t sufficient to satisfy his desire to fish and he spent even more time trolling or drifting the banks of Hamlin Lake in Ludington, Michigan in pursuit of Walleye Pike where he would skillfully drag the bottom of old flooded river bank features well underwater and invisible using only landmarks with an unmatched precision to catch these prized freshwater fish (this was well beyond a weekend hobby!).   He married his wife of 66 years, Lloydene (Mast) Johns in 1959 and they had one son Brian.  Al moved to North Carolina in 2003 to be closer to Brian and his family especially his two grandchildren Benjamin and Mackenzie who were the pride and joy of his life.   Al is survived by his wife Lloydene, sister Evelyn Hasse, son Dr. Brian Johns, daughter-in-law Dr. Haifa Shahin-Johns and grandchildren Benjamin Johns and Mackenzie Johns.  A celebration of life will be held on Sunday, July 27th at Mebane Presbyterian Church located at 402 S. Fifth St., Mebane, NC 27302 at 4PM.  In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made in Alfred’s name to the Mebane Presbyterian Church, Mebane, NC 27302.