Tom Johnson For Tom M. Johnson, M.D., Wooster was where two of the recurring themes of his life began: a devotion to education and a willingness to take on difficult challenges. He spent a fifth year at Wooster taking four lab courses in preparation for medical school, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in psychology in 1956. After graduating from Northwestern University Medical School in 1961, interning at Detroit Receiving Hospital, and completing a residency in internal medicine at the University of Michigan Medical Center, he served in the U.S. Air Force from 1965 to 1967.

In 1968 he joined Michigan State University’s new College of Human Medicine as an assistant professor of medicine. Named assistant dean in 1971, Tom set up the school’s first clinical campus in Grand Rapids. In 1977 he was named dean of the University of North Dakota School of Medicine.

“For 11 years,” Tom recalls, “I was involved in the challenging and personally rewarding work of converting their long-standing two-year program to a four-year, fully accredited, degree-granting school — a complex task intensified by political and economic forces.”

In 1988 he returned to Michigan State as professor of medicine and associate dean of the medical school. In 1994, Tom was named chief executive officer and dean of the medical school’s Kalamazoo campus. He was named professor emeritus of internal medicine in 1998 and retired from Michigan State in 1999.

Looking back on his Wooster experience, Tom singles out faculty who made a difference. “John Chittum in chemistry did more to prepare me for medical school than any other individual. Russell Becker in psychology was a superstar. We have stayed friends to this day.”

“I believe a strong liberal arts foundation fostered my appreciation for education,” Tom continues. “My interaction with faculty and peers as a student at Wooster contributed to my belief in a ‘whole person’ approach to education.”

That belief, in turn, was the foundation for Tom’s work with his own students. He encouraged them to be not just excellent clinicians, but genuinely caring and helping physicians as well.

Tom has received numerous honors, including the Lester B. Evans, M.D. Distinguished Service Award from Michigan State’s College of Human Medicine and the Physician Leadership Award from the Michigan Health and Hospital Association.

One other theme in Tom’s life predates his time at Wooster: a love of cars. He started driving a tractor on the family farm at the age of eight, graduated to a stripped-down Model T at nine, and never looked back. His particular passion is restoring “orphan” convertibles from the 1950s and 1960s — cars like Hudsons, Packards and Studebakers whose manufacturers are no longer in business. He owns 12. Five he has fully restored, three are in process, and four more await. He’s currently working on a 1954 Packard Caribbean convertible.

“It’s a disease,” he cheerfully admits. “My wife, Janie, says I will have to live to 135 in perfect health to finish them all.”

Sounds reasonable for a man who has always enjoyed challenges.