Among those who joined Del Webb to celebrate Sun City’s opening were rancher Jim Boswell, a partner in the joint venture called Del E. Webb Development Co., and R.H. “Bob” Johnson, a name recognizable to Sun City West residents as that ascribed to the town’s main boulevard, recreation center and library.

But to Del Webb, himself, R.H. Johnson was his most senior executive, trusted confidante and longtime friend. It was Bob Johnson who helped carry out Mr. Webb’s unique vision of Sun City.

“It was really a departure for us,” recalled Mr. Johnson. “We’d built a few master-planned communities. But until then, we hadn’t been involved with a project as novel as Sun City.”

But he said Mr. Webb was a determined, driven man who had already achieved notoriety as one of the nation’s most prolific and successful builders. During the 1950s and ’60s, the company had virtually changed the Phoenix skyline, having constructed its first high-rise office buildings.

“Del was a doer, he loved to work. And he liked to surround himself with competent people who could deliver the goods.”

Bob Johnson was no stranger to Del Webb. He first met the builder in 1935 while a student at a Phoenix business college. In order to pay his way through school, he took a part-time job as secretary for the Arizona General Contractors Association, of which Mr. Webb was president at the time.

“He was talking for quite a long stretch and I was copiously taking notes. Then, he suddenly stopped and asked me to read back the notes. I don’t think he believed I’d managed to keep up,” said Mr. Johnson. “I read back to him every word he’d said.”

Impressed by his diligence, Mr. Webb hired the youthful Bob Johnson on the spot as an assistant to the executive secretary at the company’s Phoenix headquarters. The starting pay was $75 a month. He quickly proved himself a capable employee and within a month his salary was boosted to $135 a month.

Recognizing his potential value to the company, however, Mr. Webb interceded again. “He told me there’s no future in being a secretary to a secretary, so he made me a timekeeper,” said Mr. Johnson.

“But, as a field employee, my pay went back to $75 a month. At first, I wasn’t sure if it was a promotion or a demotion.”

But Mr. Johnson said Del Webb was a very loyal and generous employer. “He was truly people-oriented and took good care of all of his employees.”

“Although he was extremely intelligent, Del also was very superstitious,” he said. “It was bad luck to put a hat on the bed, and you never put the phone on the edge of the bed. It could squirrel a deal.”

As a timekeeper, Mr. Johnson’s primary responsibility was to make certain all Webb projects ran efficiently and on time. During World War II, the company grew rapidly in scope and size, from building dormitories at Northern Arizona University to expanding Luke Air Force Base near Litchfield Park.

By 1942, Mr. Johnson was promoted to manager of Webb’s California operations, which was busily engaged with defense-related building contracts.

The post-war era proved even more lucrative. In 1946, he helped oversee construction of the first lavish resort on the Las Vegas Strip, the Flamingo Hotel that was headed by legendary underworld figure Bugsy Siegel.

During the 1960s and ’70s, the Webb Company built Madison Square Garden; Chris-Town in Phoenix, the West’s first enclosed shopping mall; the 44,000-seat Anaheim Stadium; numerous hospitals, including five Veterans Administration hospitals and Maricopa County General Hospital; the Pasadena Museum of Art; and lavish resorts, including the Kuilima Hotel in Hawaii.

In 1967, Bob Johnson was elected president of what had become Del E. Webb Corp., which also diversified into the hotel and gaming industries. It built and owned such luxury hotels as the Beverly Hilton, Scottsdale’s Mountain Shadows Resort and the Wahweap Resort on Lake Powell.

Its gaming division also made a significant impact in Nevada with such hotel-casinos as the Sahara in Las Vegas and Lake Tahoe, the 17-story Mint (which was then the tallest building in the state), Thunderbird Hotel in Vegas, Reno’s Primadonna, and the Nevada Club in Laughlin (now the Golden Nugget).

But, by 1973, his health began to deteriorate and Mr. Webb was no longer able to continue his frenetic pace. He stepped down as chief executive officer and was succeeded by his longtime friend and trusted employee, Bob Johnson.

Del Webb died of prostate cancer on July 4, 1974, at the age of 75. Mr. Johnson succeeded him as chairman of the board. Mr. Johnson retired from Del E. Webb Corp. in 1980, but remained as president of Wickenburg-based Del E. Webb Foundation, which was established in 1961 to administer Mr. Webb’s sizeable estate.

“He had no children of his own, so he took a keen interest in many charitable endeavors, especially youth-related organizations like the Boys and Girls Club,” said Mr. Johnson, who continues at the foundation’s helm.

Over the years, the foundation has assisted with sizeable donations to Sun City area projects, including Boswell and Del E. Webb Memorial hospitals among others.

“He was a fantastic man — kind, caring, soft-spoken and dedicated. In the 42 years that I’d known him I’d never heard him ever speak ill of anyone,” said Mr. Johnson, now 84.

“It’s hard to imagine that he would be 100 years old today.”

In spite of the diversity of his countless undertakings, Mr. Johnson said Del Webb never lost his enthusiasm for arguably his most successful enterprise — the building of adult retirement communities. Today, there are numerous Sun Cities from California to Florida that represent a lasting legacy to his unique vision.

“Of all of his projects, I dare say that Sun City was his proudest. It’s also the one by which we all remember him.”