Family and friends of Yachats man who perished trying to help swimmers not surprised at his compassion, courage

 

By GARRET JAROS/YachatsNews

YACHATS – Sean Johnson acted without hesitation Sunday when he scrambled down the rocky shoreline and jumped into the ocean to help a woman and her two young sons struggling against the current.

The selfless act of courage cost him his life. But his actions were no surprise to those who knew him best – and to those who loved him.

In an outpouring of condolences and memories on social media, Johnson was remembered as the soft-spoken, polite, gentle and kind man who played guitar on the bench in front of the post office, helped carry groceries, do yard work and advocate for the homeless like him.

He was also the father of four daughters whom he had not seen in nearly a decade.

Friends say Johnson was not one to share the details of his life. But simple, layered strokes painted by family and friends reveal the portrait of a good man and loving father who eventually struggled against the tide of mental illness.

Johnson was at Yachats State Park when he saw the mother and sons in the water below and called out to caution them about getting too far offshore. His concern quickly grew to alarm which led to his fateful actions. He was a strong swimmer but no match for what fire officials later described as a strong riptide.

Seeing that he was struggling, the mother in turn attempted to reach Johnson, but he was quickly swept offshore before vanishing beneath the waves.

The sons made it to safety while firefighters from Yachats and Seal Rock had to rescue the mother. Officials did not release her name but confirmed she was treated for minor injuries at the hospital in Newport.

A Coast Guard helicopter and motor lifeboats searched for Johnson until dark but did not find his body.

His family

Deric Sean Johnson, 52, was a native of Miami and the youngest of three children. He loved the outdoors, adventure, swimming, animals, music and all things tech. “And he loved Cuban food,” said his oldest daughter, 31, a retail event planner in Portland. “Growing up in Miami he had a good knowledge of Cuban food. But he would cook the most disgusting pad tai at home.” She laughs at the memory. “It was spaghetti noodles cooked with peanut butter, fish sauce and ketchup. It was horrible. But he made really great fajitas.”

Johnson worked as a computer programmer while his daughters were growing up and would often build websites for nonprofits and advocacy groups for free.

“He was really ahead of the scene with that,” his oldest daughter said. “He got into web development pretty young and stuck with that for a long time. And he loved playing guitar. We always remember him playing Bob Marley. And he really liked Bob Dylan and Green Day.”

Johnson liked working with his hands, making furniture for the girls when they were young and doing building projects for various museums. He enjoyed taking the girls to garage sales and tried to pass on his love of Star Wars and Lord of the Rings. He bought them typewriters and taught them about computers.

Her parents met in Florida and started their relationship with adventure, she said, hosting at campgrounds around that state and biking across the country. The family lived for 10 years in Florida before moving to Arizona and then Ashland, where Johnson’s former wife lives today with their two youngest daughters, 19, and 17.

“I’m sorry for my kids mostly,” said his former wife, reflecting that she and Johnson have now been divorced for as long as they were married – 16 years. “I’m happy to hear that he died a hero. That’s nice for the kids to have that because there can be a lot of shame with having a homeless father.”

Johnson was a “wonderful being and a great dad and a smart guy – a computer programmer,” she said, before something dark began to happen.

“He deteriorated and he kind of lost his mind and got kind of mean and nobody really knew — is he on drugs, is he crazy?” she said. “We really didn’t know what was happening. I thought it would all come clear and it never did.”

He began cycling in and out of homelessness in 2008 and “fully surrendered” to it by 2015, she said. While he was still wavering, she offered him a job where she worked but he declined, saying he had an important fight working for the homeless whose ranks he had joined. When her parents moved to Ashland to help her care for the two youngest girls, Johnson’s increasing paranoia had him believing they were in the mafia and wanted to hurt him. She never saw him again.

Johnson was never diagnosed, she said, because he was too paranoid to go to a doctor. But later family genetic testing revealed bipolar and schizophrenic markers.

Johnson’s daughters had not seen him in a decade. When he was feeling good, he would call to catch up, but in the clutches of his illness he withdrew and did not respond to their efforts to connect.

Once years ago, his former wife said she could feel his presence when she and the girls were traveling through Waldport. She called him to say they were in the area and asked if he wanted to visit with the girls. He did not respond.

But she said she was happy to hear, based on the social media comments from people in Yachats, that he seemed to be in a good place.

The oldest daughter said she messaged her dad a couple of days before his drowning in an effort to find out where he lived and to possibly visit. He responded to her first message, she said, but not to the followup asking where he was.

“I’m glad that people knew him and cared for him,” she said of the comments posted on social media. “That’s really special to hear and I’m glad to hear it. It’s been a long time since we’ve been able to connect with our dad so we are reading people’s comments and it’s meaning a lot to us right now.”

Another daughter, a 25-year-old musician who lives in Oahu, Hawaii, agreed.

“It’s been really sweet to see all the comments on the article that was already posted and in the Facebook groups,” she said. “Just hearing about people’s experiences with him and his impact in the community and all the things he did, it just made me so happy to hear because we haven’t been in touch much for the past decade.”

She was particularly happy to read he had a little garden growing because in her childhood memories her dad was always happiest when he was outside.

“He was always taking us to rivers and lakes and waterfalls,” she said. “He loved that stuff and so I always just figured that was the life he was meant to live, outside and just doing things that brought him joy.”

She remembers him as a “really loving person” who was always thinking about marginalized people and animals and how to care for everyone around him.

“So it doesn’t surprise me that he would be brave enough to save these people,” she said. “It’s very in his character.”

Johnson’s youngest daughter reached out via text to talk about her dad.

“He struggled with schizophrenia and was off and on homeless my whole life but nonetheless he was the best person I’ve ever met,” she said. “He was always so kind, creative and passionate. Even when he had little — he’d give. He loved nature a lot and always had something fun planned for me and my sister when we’d see him.

“He made the rest of the world go away when I was with him and I can’t believe I’ll never see him again,” she continued. “Even though he struggled a lot, when he was able to be there he was the best dad ever. He’d play guitar and sing to me and my sisters while we fell asleep every night we stayed with him.”

His Yachats friends

Outside the Yachats Community Presbyterian Church’s food pantry this week, two of Johnson’s friends talked about how he was a forager and agate hunter “who would give you the shirt off his back” and that he’d recently returned from a bike trip to Pacific City.

“He was just a real peaceful guy who was real happy every time for you if you did something – he’d be real happy for us,” said one man who declined to give his name. “He was a real strong homeless advocate too. He was real protective for all those people. He stuck up for the homeless.”

Church pastor Bob Barrett said Johnson always had a smile and was likeable and helpful, always “popping around and asking if there was anything we needed done around the place.” Johnson helped established the guidelines for the winter shelter and met with the city manager’s committee to talk about the homeless.

Barrett led a short tribute to Johnson during the church’s community dinner Tuesday night and announced Thursday that the church will host a celebration of life for Johnson at 3 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 27.

Another friend described Johnson as one of the most generous people he’d ever met, mentioned his guitar playing and that the instrument was Johnson’s prized possession.

The guitar was a gift from Tina Neal, who works at the Green Salmon Coffee Company. She met Johnson when he came in to buy a cup of coffee.

Green Salmon’s owner and employees gave Johnson gift cards to keep him coming back and left a bucket under a bench with the day’s choice leftovers. Neal later gave him a cot and waterproof sleeping bag.

An idea struck Neal before last Christmas when she saw him out in a pouring rain with a shellacked wooden guitar that was falling apart. Funds were tight, so Neal asked her mom – who always gives her an instrument at Christmas – if she could apply it toward getting Johnson a carbon-fiber guitar that would stand up to the weather.

Her mom agreed, so Neal set up installment payments and bought the guitar.

“And then I wondered ‘How am I going to give it to him?’ because he does get overwhelmed and it’s kind of a big gift,” Neal said.

The day the guitar arrived, she and her mom just happened to see Johnson on the side of the road and called out. “He was just really thankful. And I didn’t want too much ‘goobering’ or any weirdness so I just said ‘Well enjoy,’ and he rode off and that was that.”

She never did get to hear him play.

“That drove me nuts,” she said. “Every time he saw me he would put it down and say hello and we would start talking. People say it was beautiful but I hardly got to hear it. But he was just a great person – he was sparkly.”

• Garret Jaros is YachatsNews’ full-time reporter and can be reached at GJaros@YachatsNews.com