Dr Rodney Charles Johnson passed away on Monday, July 29, 2019 at Countryside
Manor in Sheboygan WI where he had been a resident for seven months.
He was born March 30, 1932 to Alice (Jensen) and Ed Johnson in Audubon MN.
Rodney graduated from the Lake Park MN High School in 1950 and attended the
University of North Dakota in Grand Forks ND until his National Guard Unit was called
for service in December, 1950 during the Korean War. He was assigned to duty in Camp
Rucker AL and later to Fort Sam Houston TX where he was part of the medical unit.
Upon his release from the Army, he attended the University of Vermont and Macalaster
College before completing his BA degree in Psychology and Humanities at the
University of MN in 1955.
On May 3, 1958 he married Dolcye Ann Torgerson, and they became parents of three
children, Kirt Charles, Kirstin Ann and Kristian Radich.
After a year of post-graduate pre-med, he began his medical training at the University of
MN, graduating in 1961. He completed his internship at the Gordon Munson Hospital in
Traverse City MI in 1962 and returned to the University of MN for his residency in
Psychiatry, which he completed in 1965.
He accepted a position on the staff of the Sheboygan Clinic (now Aurora) in July, 1965
and was certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology in 1969. He was
on the staff of Sheboygan Memorial Hospital and St Nicholas Hospital from 1965-1978,
Medical Director for Sheboygan County Hospital from 1965-1978, and Chairman of the
Department of Psychiatry at Sheboygan Memorial Hospital from 1974-1978.
In August 1980 he became Assistant Medical Director for Clinical Psychiatry, U.S.
Department of State. He participated in the debriefing of the American hostages when
they were released by Iran after holding them for 444 days. He traveled to various posts
around the world for his work with the State Department Foreign Service and the CIA
and was posted to Mexico City for three years, serving all of South and Central America
and the entire Caribbean region.
He was a consultant for the American Psychiatric Association Council on International
Affairs and the Arabian American Oil Company in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia and served as
a member of the Board of Directors of the Institute for Psychiatry and Foreign Affairs
and Global Psychiatric Associates.
His professional affiliations included the World Psychiatric Association, American
Psychiatric Association, Washington Psychiatric Association, International Health
Society, and the American Academy of Federal Physicians.
His love of sailing led to his crossing the Atlantic Ocean seven times in his various
sailboats, keeping him at sea for six weeks on each crossing. His first crossing was with
Dr Bill Moir on the Pilgrim to the Hebrides off the coast of England. Later he made
several crossings from the East Coast to Spain and back.
As a Lt. Colonel in the Army Reserves, he was deployed to Iraq during the Gulf War in
November, 1990. He served on the front line during Operation Desert Storm with the 7 th
Corps, 3 rd Armored Division, which was involved in the “left-hook” attack on the
Republican Guards in southern Iraq during the ground war.
During his retirement years, he spent summers on Detroit Island in northern Lake
Michigan where he docked his 72 foot sailing ketch, the Barlovento. His proudest
achievement in retirement was building a two-story stone house on his beloved Island
and setting every stone himself.
He was preceded in death by his parents Alice and Ed Johnson, his younger brother
Douglas, and sister-in-law Carol. He is survived by his wife, Dolcye; son Kirt,
Kewaunee WI; daughter Kirstin Brandtjen (Henry III), St Paul MN; and son Kristian
(Rosemary), Belvidere IL; twin grandsons Douglas Charles and Conrad Robert,
Belvidere IL; grandson Henry Brandtjen IV, two step granddaughters Chavela Miller and
Isabel Brandtjen; two brothers Ronald Thief River Falls MN; William (Marlys),
Crookston MN; sister Judy Thomas, Cambridge MN, and numerous nieces, nephews and
cousins.
In lieu of flowers, memorials can be sent to the Sheboygan Yacht Club or the National
VFW. A Celebration of Life service is planned for 11 a.m. on Saturday, August 17 th at
the Sheboygan Yacht Club. Ballhorn Funeral Chapels is handling arrangements.
The family would like to thank the staff and caregivers at Countryside Manor and Sharon
S. Richardson Hospice for their care and support.
Please visit our website to sign the guestbook or leave condolences:
www.ballhornchapels.com
