Dick Johnsen (1943 - 2016)

Dick Johnsen 2010

Dick Johnsen (Deceased)

Louisville, KY

Birthday October 6

Dick Johnsen 1974

Obituary:
Richard K. Johnsen, 73, of Louisville passed away Sunday August 26, 2016 at his home with the love of his life, wife Suzie and beloved Labrador Retriever, Kali, by his side, after a long, valiant battle with multiple myeloma. A graduate of Colorado State University, Dick worked for Xerox Corp, NTS Development Company (Louisville) and subsequently formed his own real estate development company, Olympia Homes.

Dick is survived by his loving and devoted wife; Suzie Nicholas Johnsen, sons; Brent, Jeffrey, Jonas, and grandson; Cody, all whom live in Colorado. He is also survived by brother-in-law; N.J. Nicholas, Jr. of New York City and Nantucket, Peter M. Nicholas of Boston and Boca Grande and Kenneth R. Monroe or Fort Lauderdale.

An avid fisherman and hunter, Dick and many of his close friends would scout fishing holes throughout the country up into Cree Lake, Saskatchewan, Canada, where he enjoyed many memorable trips, especially at the Cree Lake Lodge. Another place dear to Dick’s heart was Howard South Dakota where he and his lifelong friend, Bill Hinton rented a house for the past fifteen years, inviting many friends and their dogs to join them for pheasant hunting several times every fall. Those were some of the best days of Dick’s life, trips he so enjoyed with his beloved hunting dogs, family and dear friends.

The family wishes to acknowledge Dr. and Mrs. Matthew Jung and Dr. Geetha Joseph for their care of Dick as well as the many friends and neighbors who encouraged and supported us unconditionally.

While at NTS, Dick was deeply involved in the Make-A -Wish Foundation for many years.  Anyone wishing to honor Dick with a donation please send to The Make-A-Wish Foundation 1230 Liberty Bank Lane, Louisville, KY. 40222 

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Dick Johnsen joined Xerox in the mid 60's in the Denver Branch, and was transferred immediately to Cheyenne, Wyoming where he sold the Xerox 914, the Xerox 813 as well as the Haloid G46 and G30 photocopy machines, which were used by most counties in America to create legal document copies (ie: photocopies).   The old Haloid Photocopy Machines consisted of a camera and all the elements of making a photograph type of copy. They were about 5-6 feet high and about 15 feet long.   

"Many towns in my sales territory had not been opened up for  Xerox, so I sold enough units to justify hiring a Xerox serviceman, usually a TV repairman to work on the machines I placed.    That was in Western Nebraska, Northern Colorado, and Wyoming, a very large territory which many times required us to take a small airplane to call on accounts, very exciting to develop a geographic area for Xerox".  

Dik Johnsen 1979

After developing the area, Xerox transferred  Dick back to Denver and later in the early 70's promoted him to the Louisville branch as sales manager.  In Louisville, he worked for Marc Eisner and later Jack Davis.  Dick resigned Xerox to take a job with NTS Development Company in Louisville, as President of residential properties and stayed with NTS for about 8 years.   

After NTS, he developed the Louisville area for the Zaring Company, a Cincinnati based residential construction company and did that until founding, Olympia Homes, a property development company, based in Louisville.  "We developed property throughout Kentucky, Indiana and Tennessee until retiring, with some health issues, a few years ago".    

"I enjoy hunting and fishing as much as I can.  My wife Suzie and 4 hunting dogs, all still live in Louisville".