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Dr. Norman Johnson Recognized for Fifty Years in Medicine Saturday, Nov. 1, 2003
As guests mingled prior to the dinner, there was a table filled with mementos of Dr. Johnson's life, one of his mini-cars was in the corner, and a slideshow of photos from Dr. Johnson's life shared the big screen with scenes from the movie "Battle of the Bulge". This movie is a particular favorite of Dr. Johnson's, in part because he participated in this historic battle.
Friends, family and colleagues of Dr. Johnson enjoyed a slideshow of Dr. Johnson's life, presented by Dr. Johnson's Sierra Madre partner of 40 years, Dr. William White. From this slideshow, we learned that Dr. Johnson was born on a farm in Somerton, in Yuma County, AZ, just north of the Mexican Border. He was bussed to school, where in 1st grade, he participated in a play which today seems somewhat prophetic, in that his role was a character named Dr. Cure 'em Quick. He attended Yuma High School, which shared its administration building with the territorial prison. For this reason, the Yuma team name was the Criminals, and Dr. Johnson was the team manager. Dr. Johnson to this day proudly tells people that he was a Criminal when he was a teenager. He graduated in 1942, and enrolled at the University of Arizona. Shortly after beginning his collegiate academic career, he was drafted to serve in World War II.
He became a medic in the US Army, and was stationed at Fort Leonard. From there, he went to Europe, where he served about a half mile from the front lines. He participated in the Battle of the Bulge, and received a Battle Star for his efforts. The Battle of the Bulge lasted from December 16, 1944 to January 28, 1945 and was the largest land battle of World War II in which the United States participated. More than a million men fought in this battle including some 600,000 Germans, 500,000 Americans, and 55,000 British.
Upon his return to the US, he was accepted into Syracuse University's Medical School. That year, only 1 in 13 applicants was accepted into Syracuse. After completing his studies at Syracuse, he interned in Santa Barbara. In 1953, he moved to Sierra Madre, and established his practice at 94 N. Baldwin Ave. During his early days in Sierra Madre, he lived over a garage on Grand View Ave.
While staying on Grand View, he met a lady from Minnesota, his future wife Ann. They were wed on Oct. 6, 1954, and over the years they were blessed with six children, Belinda, Douglas, Rebecca, Kathleen (known as Kitty), Karina and Steven. With all those children, they could no longer live in a garage, and moved into a home in Upper Hastings Ranch.
In 1960, Dr. Johnson formed the Sierra Madre Medical Group, a clinic located next to the Sierra Madre Community Hospital (currently the Skilled Nursing Facility) on Sierra Madre Blvd. The Community Hospital was a 26 bed hospital, and featured an on-staff surgeon, radiologist and anesthesiologist. The surgeon, Dr. Thomas Pickerin (known as the Surgeon General of Sierra Madre), was in attendance to honor Dr. Johnson at the Saturday evening dinner.
In 1963, Dr. White became a partner in the group, and he and Dr. Johnson maintained their offices in Sierra Madre to serve the community until 1994. Dr. Johnson applied to and was accepted on staff with full privileges at Methodist Hospital of Arcadia in 1973. Though Dr. White and Dr. Johnson's offices have moved, and their partnership has a new name, they still serve the community of Sierra Madre today at what has evolved into Arroyo Seco Medical Group. Dr. White also presented a bouquet of roses to Dr. Johnson's assistant of nearly thirty years, Nurse Judy Dirks, who served as Dr. Johnson's nurse for two and a half years, took some time off to have a baby, and has served an additional twenty-seven and a half years since her return.
During his service to the community, Dr. Johnson has delivered more than 1,100 babies. The entire population of Sierra Madre is under 11,000.
Dr. Johnson is a fixture in the Sierra Madre community, not only for his years of practice, but for his participation in the 4th of July parade for many years, motoring down the boulevard in mini-cars with his sons. He is also known for his tulips, of which he plants 2,000 or more each year. And he is a Founding Member of the Autry Museum of Western Heritage, the Performing Arts Center of Los Angeles, and the Los Angeles Zoo.
Personal tributes were presented by many. The first was made by his son-in-law Roger Hill, husband of Dr. Johnson's oldest daughter Belinda, and father of three of Dr. Johnson's grandchildren. He noted that Dr. Johnson is 'Not only a scholar and a gentleman, but a class act. He does everything right...and is truly an inspiration. Dr. Thomas Pickerin stated that he knew that "there was never a finer general practitioner than Dr. Johnson". He drew a hearty laugh from the crowd when he stated that while it was probably going to come as a shock to Norman, (and his own wife), but he could confirm that of the 1138 babies delivered by Dr. Johnson, "927 of them were mine."
Sierra Madre City Councilmember George Maurer thanked Dr. Johnson for his support, both financially and consultatively, in helping the City of Sierra Madre to establish an emergency medical services section of the Fire Dept.
Dr. Johnson's daughter Kitty paid tribute to her father, while noting that it seemed "all 1100 of the babies were born on Christmas Day" while she and her brothers and sisters waited for Dad to get home so they could open their presents.
Dr. Henry P. Sideropoulos, President and CEO of Arroyo Seco Medical Group, spoke and paid tribute to Johnson by noting that in an ever changing world, where people move to new houses, new jobs, etc., every three or four years, to be able to be a model of stability and consistency (as has Dr. Johnson) is rare. He called Dr. Johnson "a model of what a physician should be, what a husband should be, and what a father should be.
Certificates of commendation were presented to Dr. Johnson by Dr. Andrew Muller, Jr., representing County Supervisor Michael Antonovich, for the County of Los Angeles, by Mayor Bart Doyle for the City of Sierra Madre, by Earl Bernard for Assemblyman David Dreier's office, by Commander Bill Newbery of Sierra Madre VFW Post 3208, noting Dr. Johnson's service from April 1943 through Feb. 1946 in the 75th Infantry Division. Coincidentally, Commander Newbery also participated in the Battle of the Bulge. Additional certificates and/or plaques were presented by Methodist Hospital of Arcadia and Arroyo Seco Medical Group, which featured a Norman Rockwell drawing and acknowledgement of Dr. Johnson as Dr. Cure 'em Quick.
Dr. Johnson's son Douglas was the final speaker of the evening, and he began by thanking everyone in attendance, singling out Dr. Pickerin, whom he remembered telling him years ago that he had spent half his money on liquor, women, and wild living, and the other half he had wasted. He noted that it was his belief that the reason Dr. Johnson had six kids was so that he could have access to six refrigerators to germinate his tulip bulbs, which must be stored colder than the California climate allows. He said that after polling his brothers and sisters for pet phrases they remembered, they had come up with "Be useful, as well as ornamental," "As long as I can remember....," 'Eat the first one you touch." "Do you know what time we eat dinner?" and "Eat it and shut up."
He paid tribute to his mother, who was the "woman behind the man."
He stated that he was not a young person when he realized that what he grew up thinking to be normal is abnormal, that a home where Dad works, Mom stays home, dinner is eaten together at the same time, everybody likes each other, and is a loving mentoring environment is not the norm.
Congratulations to Dr. Johnson on a life time well spent in service to his community and his family.
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Copyright © 1998 - 2011 by The Coburn Group, Sierra Madre. All logos, trademarks or product names mentioned or displayed herein are the property of their respective owners. All photographs and videos on this site Copyright 1998 - 2011, by Bill Coburn, Sierra Madre, CA unless otherwise noted. Any reference to the City of Sierra Madre or Sierra Madre applies to the community of Sierra Madre and not the city government. The City of Sierra Madre, California government is not affiliated with Sierra Madre News.Net at this time. Any city government information provided herein has been previously published for public dissemination and is shown here as a public service of Sierra Madre News.Net without explicit permission of the government of the City of Sierra Madre. |
Dr. Norman Johnson
was honored on Saturday night for celebrating fifty years of medical
practice. A gala dinner was held at the Pasadena Hilton, where
guests dined on poached salmon and chicken marsala. The dinner was hosted
by Arroyo Seco Medical Group, the firm that Dr. Johnson currently
practices with. Musical entertainment was provided by harpist Celia
Valero.