May 04, 2025
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Art Johnson, patriarch, owner of 80 northern Illinois Shell stations, dies at 94

By BY CODY
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Art Johnson, owner of Johnson Oil's 80 Shell and BP stations throughout northern Illinois and eastern Iowa, died Tuesday at the age of 94. He is pictured here in his Rock Falls office, in an interview he did with SVM in September to mark the company's 60th anniversary. (Alex T)

STERLING – Arthur J. Johnson, known as “Mr. Johnson” to his employees, associates and customers at Johnson Oil Shell and BP gas stations for more than 60 years, died Tuesday at his home. He was 94.

Johnson opened his family business in 1959 selling heating oil, and bought his first Shell gas station a few years later in Amboy.

The company grew to 80 locations throughout northern Illinois and eastern Iowa, including Shell stations in Rock Falls – his longtime headquarters – Sterling, Dixon, Morrison, Fulton, Lanark, Polo, Mt. Morris, Grand Detour, Oregon, Albany, Hillsdale, Princeton, Walnut, LaSalle-Peru, Mendota, Oglesby Utica, Ottawa, Morris and Marengo.

As his company grew, so did the number of family members who worked with him. Johnson’s wife of 61 years, Darlene, worked at his side for many years until she died in 2011, and his daughter, Kathy Peugh, handles day-to-day operations. Grandchildren eventually came into the business as well.

Johnson grew up in rural Tampico graduated from the former Tampico High School in 1944. Soon after, he enlisted in the Navy and served on a catapult crew on an aircraft carrier in the Pacific Theater of World War II. After the war, he delivered fuel and heating oil for Sinclair in Sterling and Rock Falls for 10 year before establishing his own business.

Since 1969, Johnson Oil has been rewarded by Shell each year with a vacation prize for being one of the company’s top jobbers.

Johnson Oil also gives back to many local functions: Johnson was a chairman of United Way campaigns, and he was the sinner of the Rock Falls Chamber of Commerce’s 1993 Shoulder to the Wheel Award, which recognizes individuals and organizations that have made a difference in the community.

“We want to be involved,” Johnson told Sauk Valley Media in September, in a story about his company’s 60th anniversary. “Schools, chambers, city functions; each town is really a neighborhood business, and we’re a venue we can offer to that neighborhood. We want to be part of it.”

Among is survivors are Peugh; his sister, Madeline DeDecker; seven grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren. A private Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Sterling, with burial in Calvary Cemetery in Sterling.

Memorials may be made to Gaffey Home Nursing & Hospice or St. Mary‘s.

McDonald Funeral Homes in Rock Falls is handling arrangements.