The news from Jann tonight is mostly the same. She said the physician tonight was pretty positive, and felt like dad was showing some signs of improvement. His blood pressure has been up more today, and seems to be a bit more stable. They have brought the blood pressure meds down quite a bit, but will continue with smaller doses for now. Jann noted that since they haven't done dialysis in three days, dad seems pretty puffy. Perhaps they'll schedule some dialysis to help remove more of those fluids.
Dad remains on the oscilating ventilator for now, and it appears that he will for a while still while his kidneys continue to improve and the antibiotics fight the infections. Tommorow afternoon we expect to hear the latest blood culture results.
The doctors are telling us that this will be a slow process of healing, so keep the faith! We appreciate your prayers on dad's behalf.
Obituary for Thomas Stoddard Johnson
Dr. Thomas Stoddard Johnson, 65, passed away October 17, 2007 at McKay-Dee Hospital due to complications with pancreatitis. He was surrounded by his loving wife and family.
Tom was born December 16, 1941 in Tremonton, UT to Heber Guy and Emorett Stoddard Johnson. He graduated from Bear River High School. He married his high school sweetheart, Carol Lue Smith in the Logan LDS Temple June 26, 1964. They were blessed with 5 children and 11 grandchildren.
Tom was an active member of the LDS church. He served as a bishop twice, as well as in many other callings. He let everyone know that being Primary Pianist was his favorite and the best calling in the church. He had a great knowledge of the gospel and always shared his firm testimony.
Tom loved his profession and dedicated his professional
life to the Department of Communicative Disorders at Utah State University. The faculty and students were his "family away from family." They fondly referred to him as either “Doctor Johnson” or simply, “The King”.
Tom was a True Aggie and loved to cheer on Utah State. He loved attending gymnastic meets, and was the team’s biggest fan. After Tom lost his first wife to cancer, he was able to find love again with Kathryn (Katie) Harris of Pleasant View. They were married April 2, 2004. They loved living in St. George, and enjoyed many hobbies and loved traveling together.
Tom's greatest joy in life was his children and grandkids. He was an amazing husband, father, and grandfather. Tom always had such a great sense of humor and an awesome smile. The family would like to thank everyone for all their thoughts and prayers. They would also like to thank the knowledgeable and loving staff at McKay-Dee Hospital's ICU for their love and efforts working with Tom.
Tom is survived by his wife Kathryn and his children: Jay (Melodee), Jared (Michelle), Jann (Chad) Fawcett, Thomas (Rachel), Tailona Johnson, and the Harris children: Brett (Alicia), Chad (Angie), Brandon (Julia), Matthew (Wendy), Tyson (Karen), and Michaelene (Nathan) Kippen; a sister, Jill Cannon (Owen). He was preceded in death by his parents, first wife, Carol Lue; sisters Tess and Peggy; a brother Jack; and a granddaughter Gracie Harris.
Funeral Services will be held at 11:00am on Monday October 22, 2007 at the North Logan 13th ward chapel, 400 E. 1800 N. in North Logan. A viewing will be held Sunday October 21, 2007 at Allen-Cranney Mortuary from 6-8 and also on Monday from 9:30-10:30 at the church prior to the funeral services. Interment will be at 1 pm at the Smithfield Cemetery.
Tom was born December 16, 1941 in Tremonton, UT to Heber Guy and Emorett Stoddard Johnson. He graduated from Bear River High School. He married his high school sweetheart, Carol Lue Smith in the Logan LDS Temple June 26, 1964. They were blessed with 5 children and 11 grandchildren.
Tom was an active member of the LDS church. He served as a bishop twice, as well as in many other callings. He let everyone know that being Primary Pianist was his favorite and the best calling in the church. He had a great knowledge of the gospel and always shared his firm testimony.
Tom loved his profession and dedicated his professional
life to the Department of Communicative Disorders at Utah State University. The faculty and students were his "family away from family." They fondly referred to him as either “Doctor Johnson” or simply, “The King”.
Tom was a True Aggie and loved to cheer on Utah State. He loved attending gymnastic meets, and was the team’s biggest fan. After Tom lost his first wife to cancer, he was able to find love again with Kathryn (Katie) Harris of Pleasant View. They were married April 2, 2004. They loved living in St. George, and enjoyed many hobbies and loved traveling together.
Tom's greatest joy in life was his children and grandkids. He was an amazing husband, father, and grandfather. Tom always had such a great sense of humor and an awesome smile. The family would like to thank everyone for all their thoughts and prayers. They would also like to thank the knowledgeable and loving staff at McKay-Dee Hospital's ICU for their love and efforts working with Tom.
Tom is survived by his wife Kathryn and his children: Jay (Melodee), Jared (Michelle), Jann (Chad) Fawcett, Thomas (Rachel), Tailona Johnson, and the Harris children: Brett (Alicia), Chad (Angie), Brandon (Julia), Matthew (Wendy), Tyson (Karen), and Michaelene (Nathan) Kippen; a sister, Jill Cannon (Owen). He was preceded in death by his parents, first wife, Carol Lue; sisters Tess and Peggy; a brother Jack; and a granddaughter Gracie Harris.
Funeral Services will be held at 11:00am on Monday October 22, 2007 at the North Logan 13th ward chapel, 400 E. 1800 N. in North Logan. A viewing will be held Sunday October 21, 2007 at Allen-Cranney Mortuary from 6-8 and also on Monday from 9:30-10:30 at the church prior to the funeral services. Interment will be at 1 pm at the Smithfield Cemetery.
Friday, October 12, 2007
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2 comments:
Hi Tom’s Family! Thanks for your updates. I read them faithfully and continue to have hope for the King! He's in my prayers as well. I have heard from two of his "old" friends - Jay Jensen and Dick Mecham. They are very interested in his progress. You may have heard from them as well. I've tried to keep them updated.
Tom has been my MAIN inspiration and motivation professionally for years and years. He was very interested in voice disorders as you know and as one of his graduate students I became interested in voice as well. He was my thesis chair and helped me in that whole process. I think he was the main one who helped me secure a position at USU a few years after I had graduated. He gave me many opportunities to cultivate and harvest ideas or projects that he had planted such as our annual summer workshops and our outreach masters program. I've been running those programs now for over 20 years thanks to Tom. He wrote a book on vocal abuse and asked me to work with him in developing a computer program to "modernize" his book in the new frontier of home computers. That was many years ago. He invited me to go to Orlando Florida to present to a group of professionals on his behalf. He sent my wife and I to St. Petersburg Florida to a Department Head Conference and I certainly wasn’t the department head! He appointed me as assistant department head to keep me at USU when I was going to leave. I'm still in that position after probably 15 or so years and two other department heads. I could go on and on and on. Many years ago when I was made Bishop he was my wise mentor. I've always liked his wit and sense of humor. He and Jay Jensen were always very entertaining!!! Tom and I used to select the graduate students that were admitted to our outreach program because most of the other faculty had left for the summers. Tom was always very professional and very supportive of all sorts of students. He believed in giving students a chance who may not have always had the highest grades. On a bit of a humorous note, I think his good taste in visual beauty may have backfired on our department once. A student from California came to visit the department one late spring day. She wanted to get into our on-campus graduate program but we (the whole SLP portion of our department) had already selected all the students and filled all the positions for our on-campus program for the next school year. I don't remember what she looked like other than she had long blonde hair, a short skirt and black boots. Evidently when Tom visited with her he was somewhat distracted with her looks and didn't focus too much on her other qualifications. He admitted her into our graduate program on the spot and she ended up being a very poor student! I gave him a hard time about that decision a few times over the years. Tom's year end departmental graduation speeches (for the students) and musical performances were memorable and are still talked about by those of us who are still in the department who agonized through those LONG speeches. He often printed and disseminated the speeches, which were usually 10 - 15 pages long. Our year-end parties were usually outside and one year the weather was COLD and snowy. We were all hoping he'd cut his speech short since we were outside at a bowery at the fairgrounds. But, NO, he gave the entire speech!!! It's great to recall and laugh about it now! His headband and Willie Nelson songs were always one of the highlights of the graduation parties. He'd finish the speech and then put on the headband and pull out the guitar and give us a concert! It was GREAT!!! Of course Tom wore his very impressive KING costume at least once a year - on Halloween as I recall. The bright and tight red and black costume, complete with crown, on such a shapely body has burned an impression in my brain that will never leave!!! I could go on and on and on (ASHA conventions, flexible vocal stroboscope demonstration, kicking the black rock down the road, fall faculty retreats with state of the union, state of the state, state of the department speeches at Zanavoo and at his brother's (I think) cabin up Logan Canyon, the demolition of the Mechanical Arts Building, etc. etc. etc. Here's just one more in closing. Tom was always looking for ways for the department to get more money. With Jay Jensen’s help he was very instrumental in finding a wonderful donor for the renovation of our COMD Building. Tom and I worked very hard (mostly Tom with my token support) in getting plans made and details worked out for the interior demolition and remodeling of the inside of our building. This was a HUGE project for Tom. There were many details and headaches involved not only in the renovation but also the temporary relocation of our entire department for a year while the renovation was taking place. Tom pushed through the whole process and saw it through to completion and dedication. He then retired from COMD shortly thereafter. Without a doubt he’s always struck me as a person not interested in the glory, just interested in the process and outcome. I respect him greatly as a professional colleague and friend. I talked to him just a few months ago on the phone about helping me collect some data on availability of adult therapy settings in Southern Utah and he was still interested in keeping his finger in the profession pool. He’s great. Sorry this is so long! I just got on a roll and couldn’t stop. Best Wishes in this frustrating and difficult experience. I’ll keep checking your logs on the blog.
Wow, thanks for the tribute Dee! I remember many of those stories and times. You guys truly had a magical group of staff members up there. I've had the priviledge of working with SLP's all over the state, and it seems that they all know him, they always are sharing storiesof the good old days with Dr. Johnson.
Long live the King!
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