John Gonella; Former Aide to President Johnson

John Gonella, 71, a former aide to President Lyndon B. Johnson and a Capitol Hill lobbyist. Gonella, most recently an assistant to the vice president of the Assn. of American Railroads, began his career in Washington in 1949 when he moved there to work as an information officer for the Embassy of Pakistan. He was a press spokesman and congressional liaison with a number of firms before joining the State Department’s congressional relations office in 1965. He joined the Johnson White House staff in 1966 and served as a congressional liaison through 1969. He worked from 1971 to 1977 on the staffs of Sens. Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia and Harrison A. Williams of New Jersey. At his Maryland home of cancer on Friday.