Dr. G. Timothy Johnson

Dr. G. Timothy Johnson, medical editor of ABC-TV and host of Good Morning America's "On Call with Dr. Tim Johnson" planned to be a Protestant minister. But two years after graduating from divinity school, he changed direction and entered medical school - drawn by his experience as a hospital chaplain.

Johnson's ties with Swedish Covenant Hospital span four decades. During his college days, Johnson worked at the hospital as an X-ray and laboratory technician. It was at Swedish Covenant Hospital where he met Nancy Berglund, who was working as a nurse in the operating rooms, having graduated from Swedish Covenant Hospital's School of Nursing in 1963. That was the same year that Johnson graduated from North Park Theological Seminary, before deciding to pursue a career in medicine. The two married and Johnson attended Albany Medical College in Albany, New York. While in his junior year, he and his wife spent the summer doing missionary work in a hospital in the Republic of Indonesia. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Augustana College, Dr. Timothy Johnson graduated summa cum laude from Albany Medical College and went on to get a master's degree in public health from Harvard University.

Having achieved distinction as one of the nation's leading medical communicators of healthcare information, Johnson has provided commentary on medical problems and answers for viewers of ABC News since 1975. In addition to Good Morning America, Johnson provides on-air analysis of medical news for World News Tonight, Nightline and 20/20.

Johnson is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Surgeon General Medallion, the Howard W. Blakeslee Award, Emmy Awards from the New England Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, the National Health Information Award, and the Lewis Thomas Award for Communications, given by the American College of Physicians. In addition, in a 1995 TV Guide poll of the most-trusted television news personalities in America, Johnson ranked second behind Walter Cronkite.

Holding joint positions in medicine at Harvard University and Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, Johnson is in the mainstream of the nation's top medical resources. He is the co-editor of the Harvard Medical School Health Letter Book and the founding editor of the Harvard Medical School Health Letter. Former U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop, a friend and colleague of Johnson, said, "When you educate patients the way Timothy Johnson is doing, you empower them to take a larger role in their health care. It changes the paradigm of passive patient and active physician."

Johnson is an author of several books, his most recent, Finding God in the Questions: A Personal Journey. Of that book, he states, "You don't have to have answers to everything to still be a person of faith. You can live according to what you can know or understand and live with doubt. That's something I've done my whole life."

He and his wife, Nancy Ann, reside in the Boston suburbs. They have two children. A member of the Evangelical Covenant Church, Johnson serves as assisting minister of the Community Covenant Church in West Peabody, Massachusetts. He calls his detour from the ministry to medicine not a total detour, and says, "I've stayed active in my church and certainly have tried to make myself available to people with medical problems, which I've always regarded as a kind of ministry. I think medicine and ministry at their best really do share a very similar motivation of service."

In recognition of his compassionate service of educating tens of millions of people on how to live healthier lives and how to receive better health care through good, accurate information, Swedish Covenant Hospital is proud to present its 2005 Spirit of Compassion Award to Dr. G. Timothy Johnson. We congratulate him on his outstanding career, which has impacted people throughout the world. And we thank him for honoring Swedish Covenant Hospital by accepting the award we bestow upon him this evening.

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