Spencer Johnson

Spencer Johnson, a medical doctor turned writer known best for his blockbuster motivational book “Who Moved My Cheese?”, died Monday, July 3, 2017, in San Diego of complications from pancreatic cancer, according to multiple news sources. He was 78.

"Who Moved My Cheese?" was subtitled "An Amazing Way To Deal With Change in Your Work and in Your Life." The 1998 book teaches readers about how to embrace change in one's work and life. The short, 94-page, large-type book is a fable that concerns four characters, adaptable mice Sniff and Scurry, and two not-so-adaptable "little people," Hem and Haw, as they hunt for cheese in a maze.

Upon release, the book became a business best-seller per The New York Times. It remained on the newspaper’s best-seller list for nearly five years. The book has sold 28 million copies worldwide in 37 languages.

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He was born Patrick Spencer Johnson Nov. 24, 1938, in Watertown, South Dakota. After graduating from Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks, California, he received a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Southern California and his medical degree from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland.

In the mid-1970s, he started writing a series of children’s books, called the ValueTales, with his first wife, Ann Donegan Johnson. The biographical books cover such figures in history as Helen Keller, Michael Landon, Confucius, and Abraham Lincoln, and each book ascribes to each of the subjects a value: “determination” (Keller), “positive attitude (Landon), “honesty” (Confucius), and “respect” (Lincoln). There were 43 titles in the series, which the authors wrote in collaboration with Stephen Pileggi.

He co-wrote the “One Minute Manager” series of books with management writer Ken Blanchard, though each author added their own books to the series. Johnson’s latest book was “Peaks and Valleys.”

Johnson also wrote the book “‘Yes’ or ‘No’: The Guide to Better Decisions” (1992).