Dr. George Dean Johnson, Sr.

Eagle Scout: August 19, 1924

Birth: October 16, 1907
Death: December 23, 1995
Burial: Oakwood Cemetery

Find A Grave | Spartanburg Herald-Journal, December 24, 1995, page B4

Dr. George Dean Johnson, Sr. was born October 16, 1907, in Spartanburg County, the son of Edwin W. Johnson and Jessie Dean Johnson. He joined Troop 1 at the Episcopal Church of the Advent and earned his Eagle Scout rank on August 19, 1924, as a charter member of the troop and the first Eagle Scout in Spartanburg County.

Johnson graduated from The Citadel and went on to medical training at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, where he became the school’s first instructor in pediatrics. He opened his pediatric practice in Spartanburg in 1938 and spent 16 years as one of South Carolina’s two delegates to the American Medical Association. He served as president of the Spartanburg County Medical Society in 1966 and later as president of the South Carolina Medical Association, and for 30 years he was the pediatrician for the Spartanburg Crippled Children’s Clinic.

Beyond medicine, Johnson was deeply involved in civic life. He was elected to the Spartanburg School District 7 board of trustees in 1945 and became its chairman in 1950. He chaired the Spartanburg Area Chamber of Commerce, served seven years as a director of the Spartanburg County Foundation, and sat on the boards of the Salvation Army, Mountain View, and the city’s Advisory Committee on Human Relations. He was a member of the Spartanburg Rotary Club and the Episcopal Church of the Advent.

Johnson was the widower of Elizabeth Brown Heath Johnson. He was survived by three sons — George Dean Johnson Jr., Stewart Heath Johnson, and Edwin Wallace Johnson II — and six grandchildren. Dr. Johnson died December 23, 1995, at age 88, following a lengthy illness. Services were held at the Episcopal Church of the Advent, with burial at Oakwood Cemetery.

Sources: Find A Grave, Memorial ID 51562847 (Oakwood Cemetery, Spartanburg, SC); The Waring Historical Library; and “Civic leader and pediatrician George Dean Johnson dies at 88,” Spartanburg Herald-Journal, December 24, 1995, p. B4.

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