George R. "Bob" Johnson

George R. Johnson, 81, died Friday, Dec. 12, at Heartland Care Center in Devils Lake, North Dakota with family around him. George Robert "Bob" Johnson was born Sept. 30, 1927, in the family home on 12th Avenue North in Grand Forks, N.D., to Sam A. and Olga Bjorge Johnson. His father was a foreman at the North Dakota State Mill and his mother worked as a teacher and a baker. Johnson attended Winship Elementary School, served as a newsboy at the Grand Forks Herald, and as a teenager was coordinator of the newsboy program. While in high school, he was the Boys’ Work Secretary under YMCA director George "Mac" McCain. He served as class president, student council member, and football player at Grand Forks Central, graduating in 1944 at the age of 16 and entered the University of North Dakota. In March 1945, he joined the U.S. Army, serving in the Photo Exchange in New York City and then being assigned as an audio supervisor for the Japanese War Crimes Trials in Tokyo. He was honorably discharged in August 1947. He married Marjorie Frances Dorsher on Nov. 24, 1948, and graduated from UND on Aug. 11, 1949 with a bachelor of philosophy. He then served as Boys’ Work Secretary at the YMCA in Fargo, ND and began graduate school at North Dakota State University. In 1950 he attended George Williams College in Chicago, where he was certified as a General YMCA Secretary and served in that capacity at the YMCA in Kelso, Washington. He did postgraduate work at Oregon State University in 1950-52. In 1952, he became Research Director at the John Danz Foundation, Seattle, Washington, and then returned to graduate school in the School of Public Administration at the University of Southern California, where he was in charge of the intern placement program. In 1953, he began his federal career as a personnel specialist at Norton AFB and March AFB and began a succession of moves and career advancements: 1954, Strategic Air Command at Bangor, Maine; 1955, Air Force headquarters in the Pentagon; 1956 Federal Housing Administration; 1957, Navy in Chicago; 1958, Navy Office of Industrial Relations; 1960, Coordinator of the Services, Panama Canal Company in Panama (at this time he was a candidate for U.S. Civil Service Commissioner); 1961, Minot AFB; 1962, Grand Forks AFB; 1965, Travis AFB near Fairfield, California; 1968, Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C.; 1972, Washington Navy Yards and postgraduate work at George Washington University. In 1978, he moved to the position as Chief Classification Officer at the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Aberdeen, South Dakota, retiring in 1983. In 1969, he founded and was the first president of the Classification and Compensation Society in Washington, D.C., and in 1972 he was a principal co-founder of the National Down Syndrome Congress. He played an instrumental role in convincing society, particularly the medical community and libraries, to begin using the term "Down Syndrome" instead of the term "Mongoloid" to describe a specific chromosomal disorder. Working with like-minded advocates from around the world, Johnson started or helped start several professional and parent organizations and several publications, including the Down Syndrome News, the Down Syndrome Abstract, and People With Special Needs/Down Syndrome Report, which he published and was the principal editor of for nearly 25 years. In 1988, his family honored his work by establishing a UND Foundation scholarship intended to support graduate students in special education. In 1990/1991, he was included in Who's Who in the Midwest. In 1998, he signed up for the Deeded Body Program at UND so that he could continue to contribute to education even after his death. He was active in Parent Teacher Associations, helping to start and serve as the first president of the Parent Teacher Student Association in Prince George's County Maryland, and was a member of the Elk's Club, VFW, American Legion, Sons of Norway, American Association on Mental Deficiency, United States Arc, National Apostolate with Mentally Retarded Persons, and many organizations that helped people with disabilities. He had many lifelong interests, including education, libraries (a love he fostered in his children by taking them on frequent visits to local libraries or arranging for bookmobile visits to the neighborhood) and genealogy. In honor of these interests, his family established the "George Johnson Genealogy Center" at Lake Region Public Library in Devils Lake, N.D. While living in Grand Forks in the early 1960s he researched tax records, bought property for tax due, cleared the property and resold it as his part in Urban Renewal. While in Fairfield, Calif., in the mid-1960s, he purchased low equity homes (as many as 12 at one time) and sold them on contract for deed to help families who did not have the down payment to get a house. Later he founded and published a neighborhood newspaper that covered local events in the community of Friendly, Maryland. Johnson suffered a stroke May 26, 1999, while in Devils Lake visiting family, and later that year moved there with his wife and youngest son to be closer to the rest of the family. Due to failing health, Johnson was admitted to Heartland Care Center in Devils Lake a few years later. George Johnson was preceded in death by his parents; two brothers, Warren and Jack; and two sisters, Kathleen Harper and Margaret Johnson; and a grandchild, Marilyn Olga Johnson. He is survived by his wife, Marjorie, Devils Lake; sons Sam (Mary Ann Hennessy), Devils Lake, Peter (Marsha Loken), Grand Forks, Robert (Devils Lake), and daughters Margie (Cliff) Brekken and Kari O. Johnson (both of Devils Lake); grandchildren Ted (Christy) Anderson Brekken, Mattie (Tom) Orr, Kathleen Johnson, and Jacob, Carly, Thomas and Zoe Johnson; great-grandchildren Lyndon, Jocelyn, and Ellen Orr and Anders and Nora Anderson Brekken; sisters-in-law Ann (Warren) Johnson, Lopoc, Calif., and Mary Ruth Dorsher, Northbrook, Ill.; and many nieces and nephews. A service and celebration of Johnson's life will be held Sunday, Dec. 21, at 1 p.m. at the "George Johnson Genealogy Center" at Lake Region Public Library in Devils Lake, N.D. Family and friends are welcome. The family asks that any gifts should be directed to the Lake Region Public Library to support the "George Johnson Genealogy Collection," Lake Region Public Library, 423 7th St. NE, Devils Lake, ND 58301.