Pegram Johnson, biochemist and product manager

Pegram A. Johnson, 62, of Wayne, a biochemist and life-sciences product manager, died Monday, Nov. 25, of liver failure at her home.

Dr. Johnson worked for FMC Corp.'s BioProducts divisions in Philadelphia and Rockland, Maine, for 12 years ending in 1999. She managed product and sales development for specialty gelling polymer products that are made using a substance in seaweed.

She was most recently employed as a senior product manager for Cambrex Bio Science of Walkersville, Md., specializing in commercial and business development of gelling polymers. The polymers are used in research and in laboratory separation of proteins and DNA.

Born in Allentown, Dr. Johnson grew up in Goshen, N.Y., and Addison, Vt., where her parents still live.

She received a bachelor's degree in biology from Hamilton College before moving to Montreal. She followed her 1981 doctorate in biochemistry from McGill University with postdoctoral research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

While working in Rockland, Maine, Dr. Johnson met her husband, Christopher Egolf, a patent lawyer from Philadelphia. They were married for 26 years.

Her husband described Dr. Johnson as engrossed in the arts. She drew, painted, and studied modern dance. She also loved outdoor activities such as hiking, skiing, and kayaking.

She had a great fondness for the Maine coast, where the family vacationed. "The combination of being on the ocean and having the woods and the wilds close by appealed to her," Egolf said.

In 2003, Dr. Johnson underwent a transplant in Pittsburgh for treatment of liver disease. The transplant failed. She had a second liver transplant at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania in 2004, but there were complications from that one, too.

Despite the problems, Dr. Johnson continued to pursue her interests and activities.

In person, her husband said, his wife was engaging and gentle, with a sense of humor. "She was always seeming to make friends without overpowering the relationship," Egolf said.

Besides her husband and parents, Thomas and Ella Johnson, she is survived by a son, Peter, and a sister.

Funeral services will be held at St. David's Episcopal Church, 763 S. Valley Forge Rd., Wayne, at 10 a.m. Friday, Dec. 6. Burial is in the church graveyard.

Donations may be made to the Wayne Art Center via www.wayneart.org/involved/support.php or to the Penn Medicine Liver Transplant Fund via www.pennmedicine.org/transplant/about-us/giving/.

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