Rebecca McDonald Johnson

Rebecca McDonald Johnson transitioned to the ancestors on March 12, 2026, in Bellingham
Washington. Surrounded by family and friends, she passed after a brief battle with gallbladder
cancer.

Rebecca will be remembered for her warm and welcoming demeanor, tireless advocacy social
change, and as a loving mother, wife, aunt, and friend. She cared deeply about her family,
friends, and community and was always ready to roll up her sleeves to help and to open her
home in times of celebration and struggle.

Rebecca was born on February 12, 1958, in Seattle Washington. She was the youngest of five
siblings born to Claude “Red” McDonald and Ruth Graham McDonald. She had an idyllic
childhood on Yarrow Point, Bellevue Washington, and graduated from Bellevue High School in
1976.

When Rebecca was in high school, her sister Flossie invited her to visit Washington State
University (WSU) where Black Power advocate Stokely Carmichael gave a lecture. His speech
left an indelible impression on young Rebecca, and she developed a lifelong commitment to
racial justice.

Rebecca attended WSU where she met Vernon Damani Johnson, a graduate student, who
became the love of her life. Across the late 1970s and early 1980s, Rebecca and Damani were
part of the network of activists engaged in South African divestment, farmworkers issues, and
global human rights.

Rebecca married Damani in 1982 in Pullman, Washington and graduated from WSU in 1984.
The couple lived in Spokane, then Seattle and in 1986 moved to Bellingham where Damani was
offered a teaching position at Western Washington University.

Rebecca worked in the insurance business but soon after moving to Bellingham, she began
working in community organizations, including WomenCare Shelter and then at the Whatcom
County Health Department where she did HIV testing, health education, and outreach. From
there she was hired by Interfaith Community Health Center to administer its Ryan White
Program, the largest federally funded program to care for people living with HIV/AIDS. She
would eventually become development director for the health center and served a brief stint as
interim executive director in the 2000s.

Along the way Rebecca acquired a graduate certificate in public health from the University of
Washington and a master’s degree in nonprofit leadership at Seattle University.
In 2009 Rebecca went into full-time community health consulting, first for Community Link
Consulting, and in 2013 she established her own business, Health Center Solutions. Originally
serving the Pacific Northwest region, she would come to have clients from Alaska to the
Carolinas.

Somehow Rebecca found time to get deeply involved in the Bellingham and Whatcom County
community. Damani and Rebecca had been associated with the Washington state branch of
Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow Coalition from their time in Seattle and they brought the movement to
Whatcom County in 1988. They were both Jackson delegates to the 1988 Washington State
Democratic Convention. They remained active in the state coalition until the mid-1990s, and
the Whatcom County chapter which survived until the turn of the century. The couple loved the
Rainbow idea. It gave them language to articulate the journey they had embarked upon in their
relationship and political work.

Rebecca’s community service did not stop there. The deadly pipeline explosion in Bellingham in
1998 occurred near her home and the Johnsons had relationships with the families of the three
children who were killed. She served as a board member of the Pipeline Safety Trust from 2005
to 2013.

She also served as a commissioner on the Bellingham Whatcom County Commission Against
Domestic Violence and on the boards of Mt. Baker Planned Parenthood and Northwest Youth
Services. Most recently, Rebecca has been actively involved with the League of Women Voters                                                including serving as co-president; and as a trustee, and president of the board of trustees of
Whatcom Community College.

For all her notable community service Rebecca’s deepest commitments were to her family, her
life partner Damani and their two children Cedric and Elizabeth. She and Damani were best
friends and political compatriots. Rebecca volunteered in the kids’ classrooms and chaperoned
school excursions. She was close to her extended family and affectionately known as “Aunt
Boppy.” The Johnson family regularly hosted Thanksgiving dinners for up to 40 people.
Rebecca’s presence will be sorely missed.

She is preceded in passing by her father, “Red;” her mother Ruth, her brother Peter McDonald;
and her niece, Megan Crowther. She is survived by her husband, Damani; her children, Cedric
and Elizabeth; her sisters, Linda Fremott (John), Claudia Kokinda, and Florence Crowther (Ric);
and many nieces and nephews.

In lieu of flowers donations in Rebecca’s name can be made to:
- Whatcom Community College Foundation
- Planned Parenthood of Greater Washington and Northern Idaho
- Bellingham Food Bank