Lehi People
Johnsons honored with their children for service to city
Staff Writer | Lehi Free Press
Mark and Collette Johnson have spent years giving back to Lehi through their service in the city and an area school.
Mark is currently finishing his second term as mayor of Lehi City. He served 12 years on the City Council and three years on the Planning Commission. In the last 20 years, he has served on at least nine boards, including Utah Lake Authority, League of Cities and Towns, Utah County Homeless Shelter, and the Point of the Mountain Commission. He chaired the Timpanogos Special Service District, where he served for 15 years.
For the last 10 years, Collette has loved working as a teacher’s assistant with the children at Ascent Academy, a tuition-free public charter school, in Lehi. She has also taught piano lessons for many years.
Mark has worked in the design and engineering field for more than 46 years. Twenty-seven of those years were in the consulting discipline, working with civil, municipal and entitlement projects.
“This experience has given him a unique ability to recognize problems as they develop and resolve conflict,” according to the American Planning Association Utah Chapter 2022 Fall Conference syllabus.
He received the Outstanding Eagle Scout Award from the National Eagle Scout Association for “demonstrat[ing] remarkable achievements well beyond [his] Scouting endeavors by excelling in … careers/vocations at local, regional or national levels.”
He was also named a “Paul Harris Fellow” by the Rotary Foundation for contributions to the foundation’s humanitarian and educational programs.
Mark was born in 1956 to Dallas and Donna Johnson and was raised in a small home in Pleasant Grove. His mother was the daughter of Ivor and Edna Peterson of Lehi. He was the youngest in his family with two older siblings: Kathleen Hansen and Ron Johnson, both of Lehi.
Collette was born in 1958 to Arland J. and Beth Harding Tidwell, a direct descendant of Abel Evans, an early Welsh convert to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and emigrant to Lehi. Collette was raised in Orem, the second of five children, alongside Dennis, David, Carolyn and Jennifer.
Collette’s mother was a talented pianist, organist and schoolteacher. Her father was a creative master craftsman who could build just about anything. Collette inherited her parents’ creative talents and as a child was either playing piano, drawing or reading.
Mark and Collette were raised in the post-war era by parents who typified the greatest generation—hardworking in a meager environment with a desire to attain the American dream. Mark gained a strong work ethic from his mother who insisted that he take a job on a local farm at the age of 12. That led him to see work’s value for self-sufficiency. He purchased his first car at the age of 15, which promoted his love of anything with a motor and wheels.
Both Mark and Collette saw the benefits of higher education. They attended Utah Technical College at Provo. Collette also attended BYU. Collette graduated with a degree in Graphic Design and Commercial Art, and Mark with a design degree, and he has been continuously employed in the engineering design field ever since. Mark has owned his own design firm for 11 years. He has two U.S. patents and one European patent for automation equipment.
Collette spent several decades working in the printing and publishing business. She is a voracious reader and a lover of animals, especially dogs.
The couple was married in 1991, but they knew each other as ski friends in the late 1970s and early ‘80s. Mark always thought Collette was cute but unattainable. As always, life has its quirky diversions, and they met once again at a dance many years later. They have four sons, a daughter and 10 grandchildren.
They love everything about living in this wonderful city of Lehi and always look forward to the new adventures ahead.
