He was a very optimistic person, one of those people who believed that whatever the problem, there was a solution. So he would say there’s no point spending time feeling sorry, said his wife, Joannie. Johnny Allen Wade was the happiest when he was spending time with his family, especially his two children – Carla, who was 21 and a junior at the University of Oklahoma at the time; and Jerrel, who was 17 and a senior at Edmond Memorial High School. His second favorite pastime was fishing. Wade was an engineer for the Federal Highway Administration. He had gone to work for the government after getting a bachelor’s degree in engineering from Prairie View A&M University in Prairie View, Texas, in 1975. He and his family moved here from Little Rock, AR, in December 1991.