Bill Johnson reached the pinnacle of several diverse businesses and organizations, was a personal computer pioneer, lead the Fender Guitar nation and even met the Beatles one time in London.
If you stop to think about it, there was seemingly very little that Bill Johnson of St. Joseph couldn’t do. As a result, there wasn’t much that he didn’t do to enhance the quality of life for every one of us in Michigan’s Great Southwest. Sadly, Bill died yesterday, Wednesday, April 24th, 2019 at the age of 86. Ironically, he passed away at Spectrum Health Lakeland where he served the Board of Directors for 40 years and held the title of Chairman Emeritus.
The consummate gentleman to everybody who ever met him, Bill Johnson was also an incredible business leader in the Southwest Michigan community for decades having risen to the executive suites at not only Lakeland, but also at his beloved Heath Company in St. Joseph, Gast Manufacturing in Benton Harbor, and the Columbia Division of CBS. He even worked briefly as an assistant advertising manager for Whirlpool Corporation.
Bill Johnson’s drive to the top was fueled early on by his collegiate fraternity in the early 1950s at the University of Illinois. His role at Sigma Alpha Epsilon prepped Bill for what would become an enviable and diverse professional career from coast to coast. The people at Sigma Alpha Epsilon report, “When narrowing down fraternities during recruitment, Bill listed Illinois Beta as his number one because of the ‘great group of guys who were smart, leadership oriented, responsible, and fun.'” They go on to say that “During his time as an undergraduate, Bill gained a sense of pride because the chapter was one of the top five out of 56 Greek chapters on campus, and he knew he was surrounded by brothers who were smart. He served as rush chairman in 1952 and EA in 1954-55.” He went on to win the Leutwieller Leadership Award. Even at his earliest stages of development, Bill Johnson targeted the top.
When he graduated from the University of Illinois in 1955 with a marketing and advertising degree, he served as a 1st Lieutenant & Troop Commander with the U.S. Army Signal Corps, stationed in New York City at the old Paramount Movie Studios.
Once he completed his service to the American people, Bill took on the assistant advertising manager role for the kitchen division at Whirlpool in St. Joseph, and spent three years in that role before being recruited to the team at Heath Company, the St. Joseph-base national manufacturer of Heathkit electronic devices. In his first stint there he worked for 8 years, helping to launch their national dealer program and the opening of the company’s first or more than 100 corporate owned stores.
In 1967, Bill was lured to the West Coast, joining the Columbia Division of CBS in Los Angeles as Vice President of Marketing. It was that job that afforded Bill the thrill of meeting the Beatles in London. During his four years with CBS, he established global distribution for the company’s Fender Guitar Company division, quadrupling sales there. While the California stint was cool and life there was great, Bill and his wife Patt found an opportunity to return to the Midwest and move their family back to the region.
Rejoining Heath company, he resumed his powerhouse career there for another 20-years including five in the role of Executive Vice President and 15 more as President of the company, leading the electronic kit manufacturer on the shores of Lake Michigan from a $100-million firm to evolve into an early major leader in the desktop and laptop computer business topping more than $1.2-billion in business under the Heath-Zenith flag, prolific providers to the U.S. military and many corporations across the globe.
He retired from Heath-Zenith in 1993, but wasn’t even remotely content to sit idly on the sidelines. He wrapped up his stellar manufacturing career with four years at the helm of Gast Manufacturing Company in Benton Harbor as CEO.
Even as his business career was burgeoning, Bill Johnson had time to give back to the community on multiple fronts. He joined the Memorial Hospital Board in St. Joseph in 1976 and orchestrated the merger of Memorial Hospital with Mercy Hospital of Benton Harbor, forerunners to today’s Spectrum Health Lakeland team. He was named Chairman of the Board in 1991 and led expansion of the health care system to include three regional hospitals, three nursing home/extended care facilities, an Outpatient Center, Cancer Center and new inpatient tower and parking garage site for one of the largest job providers in the region topping 3,500 employees system-wide. He was Chairman Emeritus after 40 years there at the time of his death Wednesday. He additionally served a two-year term as President of the Lakeland Health Foundations from 2007 to 2009.
Bill was also an extremely valuable donor and advisor to the Cornerstone Alliance Chairman’s Advisory Council. He also studied General Management at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Originally from Lincoln, Illinois, about half way between Peoria and Springfield, and lived in St. Joseph where he and I were neighbors in the same subdivision for 20 years and always greeted one another with the salutation, “Hello, neighbor!”
Back to his roots, Sigma Alpha Epsilon was always a huge part of Bill’s life. All three of his children, daughters Kristin and Sally and son Steve, attended the University of Illinois and returned to campus many times over the years. His wife Patt was also a University of Illinois grad.
Funeral arrangements are pending for Bill Johnson at Starks & Menchinger Chapel and Cremation Services in St. Joseph.
Congressman Fred Upton, a long time friend of Bill’s released this statement following news of Bill’s death:
Bill Johnson was salt of the Earth, always quick with kind words and a smile. He was a passionate leader of virtually every successful community endeavor in SW Michigan. He was asked and dutifully served on nearly every board and delivered. He deeply loved his family – especially his dear wife Patt – his church, Rotary, and our hospital. Frankly, he never retired as a prime community leader and his goodness will for sure leave a lasting legacy where all of us will simply continue to say, “Thank you dear friend, and well done!”
Bill was a genuinely first class leader in every regard, serving many organizations in the community including the St. Joseph-Benton Harbor Rotary Club for decades and he will be sorely missed by everyone who knew him. Godspeed to his entire family and colleagues in their time of grief.
The photo of Bill and Patt Johnson accompanying this story on Moody on the Market is courtesy of Bill’s family.
