Carl Jean Johnson (1929-1988)

Carl Jean Johnson (July 2, 1929 - December 29, 1988), was a physician and Colonel in the United States Army who opposed nuclear testing.

Birth and marriage
Carl Jean Johnson was born in Marion, Indiana on July 2, 1929 to Fredrick Chancy Johnson (1902-c.1975) and Enabel Routh (1907-c.1945). He had the following siblings: George Johnson (1927-c.1992); Derrold Johnson (born 1931); and Sarah E. Johnson (born 1939) who married David L. Mort (1937-2005). He was raised in Grant County, Indiana. At age 12 he came down with tuberculosis, and though he overcame the sickness his growth was stunted. He began a strict weightlifting regimen and developed proper eating habits that allowed him to overcome his physical weakness. At least once in his later life, he would have to have cysts from the tuberculosis infection removed. Carl married Kathryn Van Deusen (born 1923). Kathryn was the daughter of Emmett Peter Van Deusen I (1878-1965) and Margaret McKenzie Barton (1885-1963).

US Army and education
He entered service in the United States Army on July 3, 1946 and was stationed in Guam as a surveyor. It was largely an uneventful tour of duty, with the exception of while surveying the island's jungles he found a wrecked bomber from World War II that still had the pilot's remains inside. He was discharged from Army service on March 18, 1949. He went to Michigan State University and the Ohio State University College of Medicine. He had a master's Degree in public health from the University of California, Berkeley.

Rocky Flats
In 1976 he was the Director of the Jefferson County, Colorado Department of Health. He reported that soil around the Rocky Flats Plant contained 44 times more plutonium than the government claimed. In 1977 he reported higher-than-average rates of leukemia and cancer among the local people. In 1980 he reported that plant workers had eight times more brain tumors than expected. In 1981 he was fired. He later won a whistleblower lawsuit against Jefferson County, Colorado. In 1985 he lost an election to become the Boulder County, Colorado Director of Health.

Death and burial
He died on December 29, 1988 at Lutheran Memorial Hospital in Lakewood, Colorado of an unsuspected birth defect of the heart. He was buried in the Fort Logan National Cemetery in Colorado on January 3, 1989. His obituary appeared in The New York Times on December 30, 1988: "Dr. Carl J. Johnson, a public health official who attacked the Federal Government over the potentially dangerous effects of nuclear weapons testing, died of complications from heart surgery yesterday at Lutheran Memorial Hospital in Lakewood, Colorado. He was 59 years old and lived in Lakewood."

Publications

 * Carl J. Johnson, "Funding of Radiation Protection Standards Research", letter to the editor, American Journal of Public Health, February 1979.
 * Carl J. Johnson, "Cancer Incidence in an Area of Radioactive Fallout Downwind from the Nevada Test Site", Journal of the American Medical Association, Volume 251, Number 2, January 13, 1984.
 * Carl J. Johnson, "Rocky Flats: Death Inc." The New York Times, Op-Ed; Sunday, December 18, 1988, Op-ed E-23.