Margaret A. Johns

Margaret A. Johns, PhD, died peacefully at home in Waltham, MA on Sunday, October 25, 2026, at the age of 88.

Born in Arlington, MA on August 19 th, 1938, to Maurice and Edna (Andrews) Johns she was a highly respected microbiologist, vaccine researcher, and educator. A graduate of Arlington High School in 1956, Margaret earned a Bachelor of Science degree at Simmons College in 1960, a Master of Liberal Arts in 1962, followed by a Doctor of Philosophy in Microbiology on January 22nd, 1973 from Boston University.

She then embarked on a distinguished career of research and teaching at the Maxwell Finland Laboratory for Infectious Diseases at Boston City Hospital (now Boston Medical Center), working on vaccine development and collaborating with world-renowned medical scientists.

In the 1990s, she went on to have a second career as Technical Director of the International Children’s Vaccine Training Program at Massachusetts Biologic Laboratories. She travelled the world to train medical researchers and government officials in far-flung locations, such as Russia, South Asia, and Southeast Asia, passing on knowledge to a new generation of scientists around the globe.

In her retirement years Margaret began studying the Bible with Jehovah’s Witnesses. In 2009 she dedicated her life to Jehovah God, was baptized and became an ordained minister in the English Newton Congregation. There she continued her love of educating by sharing the God of the Bible and his qualities of love, joy, wisdom, and kindness.

She leaves her sister Dorothy Johns of Wilmington and many nieces and nephews and their families, including Linda Johns, with whom she lived in Waltham, MA. She was predeceased by her brother, Edward Johns, and sister Valerie (Johns) Millar.

Funeral Services will be private.