By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com
FBI Special Agent Mark C. Johnston, who was one of the first law enforcement officials to respond to the Sept. 11 terrorist attack at the World Trade Center, has died of a rare type of cancer.
Johnston was 65.
At the FBI, Johnston also played a role in the TWA 800 flight disaster, the aftermath of Katrina and Hurricane Sandy, the Press of Atlantic City reports.
“He had integrity beyond question and was humble to a fault,” Dennis McKelvey, a prosecutor who worked on joint investigations with Johnson, said.
Johnston was the author of the 2015 book “FBI & an Ordinary Guy, the Private Price of Public Services.”
“As an FBI agent in New York and other large American cities, we faced outlaw motorcycle gangs, the Mafia, drug kingpins, terrorists and land pirates,” the book’s description said. “The public knows little about the stress and high emotional costs the guardians of their safety pay in the constant battle against crime and terror.”
The Press of Atlantic City wrote:
During Johnston’s FBI tenure, he was the program manager for its employee assistance program.
Fellow FBI Special Agent Jessica Weisman said Johnston was loyal to his country, caring, compassionate and a dedicated family man. Weisman said he put in at least 20 years of service to the FBI.
“He was very committed and got very involved with the employee assistance program for many years,” Weisman said. “He was a very hardworking Special Agent for the FBI.”
Since Johnston’s retirement from the FBI, he served as program manager for police in-service training at the Atlantic County Police Academy.
Johnston also served with the Concerns of Police Survivors, a member of the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary and a volunteer with the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul. He helped found the local Beach Plum Association and was a counselor for Trinity Hospice’s Camp Lost & Found.
