Albin Willard Johnson, M.D.

Albin W. Johnson was born February 19, 1933, in Chicago, Illinois, the last and fourth child of Hilda Krichbaum Johnson and Gunnard Edmund Johnson. He attended public schools in Hammond and Griffith, Indiana, and Haines City, Florida. Throughout his life, he gave thanks for his wonderful parents and older siblings: Jean, Robert, and Carolyn.

He attended Duke University as an undergraduate where he was a member of and subsequently secretary of Alpha Tau Omega social fraternity. He was elected to the Beta Omega Sigma honorary service fraternity, served as secretary of the Duke YMCA, and was recognized as the Outstanding Student in Chemistry in his third year at Duke.

After three years at Duke, Al was selected for early admission to the Duke Medical School. He graduated in December 1957 and accepted an internship in pediatrics at St. Louis Children’s Hospital, the pediatrics teaching hospital of Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.

He then fulfilled his two-year selective service obligation in the US Air Force as a general medical officer in the 6000th US Air Force Dispensary in Tokyo, Japan. While there, he met and married Barbara Omura. They had two daughters, Hilery and Valerie, before they divorced in 1980.

Having completed his military obligation, Al returned to Duke for a 3.5-year residency in ophthalmology. He spent six more months at Duke as an instructor in ophthalmology before settling in Raleigh in 1965 where he established his private practice of general ophthalmology. Until his retirement in 2000, he served several years as the Supervising Ophthalmologist of the NC Commission for the Blind, participated in a National Institutes of Health study at Dorothea Dix Hospital regarding ocular changes in patients receiving chlorpromazine, one of the medications that allowed many psychiatric patients to be treated as outpatients.

For several years Al served as head of the Ophthalmology Department at Rex Hospital, and subsequently as president of the Rex Hospital Medical Staff. For many years he was a member of the NC Medical Society Eye Care Committee. He served as secretary and subsequently as president of the Wake County Medical Society and was a member of the Royster Society.

Soon after his retirement, Al enrolled in a computer building course at Wake Tech. He eventually networked his entire house. He next enrolled at NC State because he wanted to take calculus and physics courses “for fun.” To get into these courses, he had to pass a competency test in algebra and trigonometry, subjects he had not taken since high school. When he passed the exam with a perfect score, the test administrator said that a perfect score happened about once every 2 to 3 years.

To promote its distance learning option, NC State asked Al to tape a testimonial about its advantages. NC State put the message online so everyone interested in distance learning could view it. While taking a physics course, he discovered an error in the textbook so he phoned the author who confirmed the error. A few weeks later, he discovered another error and the same professor admitted, “Well, you’ve done it again.”

In 1986 he married Karen Kalmar whom he referred to as “the love of my life.” Karen described their relationship as “two peas in a pod.” Their regular attendance to Sunday services at First Presbyterian Church strengthened their already strong union. They considered travel a form of education, visiting Canada multiple times; St. Louis during the bicentennial of the Lewis and Clark Expedition; Civil War battlefields in NC, VA, GA and MS; also exploring Puerto Rico, Aruba and Curacao; Japan with Hilery and Valerie; Switzerland, his mother’s ancestral home; Germany and France where he and Karen had “roots;” Austria; England with his brother Bob and Bob’s wife Betty; several trips to Sweden, his father’s native country and where Al enjoyed reunions with lots of cousins.

So now Al has made another trip. To the place of his creation. We miss him but know he is where he belongs.

He took pride in being a caring, competent physician for those of all social, economic and ethnic backgrounds. As recorded in Matthew: “Well done, good and faithful servant; enter into the joy of your master.”

Al is survived by his wife of 40 years, Karen Johnson; his daughters, Hilery and Valerie Johnson; his grandson, Kala Copeland; several nieces, a nephew as well as grand and great-grand nieces and nephews.

The family thanks Susan Jessup, Diane Henry and Liisa Ogburn for their advice and support; the kind and gentle folks of Transitions Hospice Care; and the wonderful and skilled nurses and caregivers at Hayes Barton Bloomsbury.

A Service of Witness to the Resurrection will take place on Saturday, July 18, at 2:00 p.m. at First Presbyterian Church, 112 S. Salisbury Street, Raleigh, NC 27601.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Friendship Fund at First Presbyterian Church, the Salvation Army, or to the North Carolina Council for the Blind.

Brown-Wynne, 300 Saint Mary's St., Raleigh, is serving the Johnson family.