(Cancelled) Rockville’s Memorial Day Parade Will Take Place on Monday, May 29

Parade Grand Marshal: Stephen P. Johnson

Each year, the City of Rockville selects a local veteran or active military member to serve as the City’s Grand Marshal and lead the festivities. This year’s Grand Marshal is Stephen P. Johnson. Stephen P. Johnson is a historian at the Department of Defense’s POW/MIA Accounting Agency, where he works to provide the fullest possible records and accounting of missing personnel to their families and the nation.

Johnson has been a civilian employee of the Department of Defense since 2010. From 2009 to 2015, he worked in various positions at the Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office. He volunteered for the Undersecretary of Defense for Policy’s Personnel Accounting Consolidation Taskforce in 2014.

He holds a Bachelor of Arts, cum laude, in history from the University of Washington, a Master of Arts degree in history and a doctorate in United States political and cultural history from the University of Maryland, College Park, specializing in constitutional law and political conflict with a minor specialization in European military history of the 1500s-2000s.

Johnson was an enlisted member of the Air Force from 1977-1984, reaching the rank of staff sergeant. He was stationed in South Dakota and the United Kingdom and served as a security specialist, primarily working on the flightline guarding aircraft. He lives in Silver Spring.