Diana Johnstone Lopez

Diana Johnstone Lopez, of Greenville, Delaware passed away peacefully at her home on May 22, 2023, at the age of 71 surrounded by her loving family and pets.

Diana was born in Wilmington, Delaware in July of 1951 to Virginia and Paul Johnstone. She attended Tatnell School and graduated from Oldfields School. While home on break from the University of Colorado, she met and fell in love with another native Wilmingtonian, John Lopez, a covert operative with the CIA. John proposed to Diana on their third date, and four months later they wed. Diana joined John in traveling the world, living in Brazil, Peru, and England. A polylinguist, Diana spoke Italian and French and learned Portuguese and Spanish so that she could develop connections with people in their native tongue, wherever she lived.

Diana was a devoted mother to John Paul (“JP”), who was born in Brazil, and Katharine, born in Wilmington in between Brazil and Peru tours. The family returned to Delaware when the children were in high school. Throughout her life, wherever she lived, one of Diana’s hallmarks was love and she often expressed that love through cooking. She was a consummate host and could always be relied upon to have a jar full of homemade chocolate chip cookies if you stopped by to say hello. After her children had graduated from college, Diana and John fell in love with Durango, Colorado and built a home there, where they made many dear friends, and Diana embraced her inner cowgirl, volunteering with Bear Smart and hiking regularly.

In addition to filling her home with love, Diana was a perpetual student and that love of learning took her through several careers. Initially she got her BA in business administration and later joined John at the CIA working overtly in Financial Services. Throughout the years she got her real estate license, had her own Unishippers franchise run out of the home and was a convention planner for 20,000 person conventions for a large trade association. She was always successful at what she tried, but she was probably happiest in her last role working with philanthropist Foster Friess to communicate on his behalf.

Diana was an ardent Christian. A member of the Reformed Episcopal Church, she organized a congregation in Durango, Colorado. Diana attended the Blue Bell Seminary and earned a degree in Diaconal Studies. She was a longtime devoted member of the Bible Study Fellowship. She was a member of the Order of the Daughters of the Holy Cross and on the Board of the Reformed Episcopal Seminary. She also leveraged her experience in large scale event planning to coordinate the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) in Jerusalem. During the Pandemic she led morning prayer for the Stonegates community, and volunteered with the Stonegates annual gift fund. She was a founding member and devoted congregant at St Peter’s Anglican Church in Elkton, Maryland.

Diana was a lifelong member of the Wilmington Country Club. While her knees allowed, she was a passionate tennis player. She supported the Bluebird Committee that her brother Leigh had launched, maintaining forty bluebird houses and five purple martin houses. She would often tend the bird houses while on early morning walks with Molly, her beloved Bernese Mountain Dog. She trained Molly to be a service dog and volunteered with PAWS taking him to the public library and the public schools. The local autism support classroom especially treasured her visits.

Diana was a cherished wife, mother, grandmother, sister, aunt, and sister-in-law. She was predeceased
by her parents, her brother Leigh, her nephew Colt, and her niece, Robin. She is survived by her husband John, her sister Caroline, her sister-in-law Linda, her brother-in-law Tom (Margaret), her children JP (Mary) and Kate (Tim), four grandchildren Jack, Margo, Louisa and Oliver and nieces and nephews Lairsey, Ginny, Lainie, Kim, Jenny, Annie, David and Bruce.

A memorial service will be held at the Lower Brandywine Presbyterian Church on June 21st at 4pm.

To honor Diana’s memory, the family suggests:
• St. Peter’s Church: Diocese of NE&MA of RE Church, PO Box 88, Jenkintown, PA 19046
• PAWS for People, PO Box 9955 Newark, DE 19714
• Ovarian Cancer Research Alliance, PO Box 32141, NY, NY 10087-2141

Diana embodied LOVE, lived to bring people together and will be dearly missed by her family and friends. She has touched so many lives with her boundless kindness, patience, grace and thoughtfulness. While she may no longer be with us physically, she will live on in the hearts of all the people who were fortunate enough to have been graced by the light of her love.