Dr. Frank Wagner Johnson

DR. FRANK WAGNER JOHNSON, of Beulah, Michigan, died peacefully on September 13, 2009, after a protracted and vigorous effort to forestall the progression of chronic heart disease. Frank was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, on May 17, 1924, and spent much of his childhood in Vienna, Austria. His grandfather, Benjamin Bates Johnson, father, Fred Bates Johnson, and mother, Priscilla Wagner Johnson, and his brothers and sister, maintained property on Crystal Lake for more than one hundred years. Frank was attending Swarthmore College as an engineering student when World War II broke out. After graduation from Swarthmore in 1944, he served in the US Naval Ordinance Laboratory. He later enrolled in Columbia University where he received a Masters Degree in philosophy in 1947 and a Doctorate in Medicine in 1949. He served his residency at the Norristown Psychiatric Hospital, and subsequently worked at the Carrier Clinic in Belle Mead, New Jersey. He practiced psychiatry in Princeton, New Jersey, during which time he and his wife Audrey Crawford Johnson, now of Cape May, New Jersey, raised their three children: Hollis Ann Johnson, now residing in Tahoma, California; Brodie Crawford Johnson, of Greenwich Connecticut, and Cristin Leigh Johnson Clarke, of Cape May, New Jersey. Beloved daughter Heather Ann Johnson died in childhood. He has grandchildren Ian and Caroline Johnson, and Samuel, Emmy, and Garrison Clarke. Frank is survived by his long time friend and companion, Britt Lipson, and her children Marc Lipson of Charlottesville, Virginia, Erik Lipson of Philadelphia, Pa, and Audrey Lipson Pittinos of Beulah. He moved to Michigan in 1985, where he practiced psychiatry at mental health clinics in Baldwin and Traverse City. Frank was passionate and adventurous in his pursuits and beliefs. He founded Snow Bowl Ski Area, in Milton, New Jersey, in 1964, which was the first ski area in New Jersey to employ snow making. He was an avid skier and sailor, and designed and built snow making equipment as well as an experimental hydrofoil sailboat. In 1998 he founded a charter school in Frankfort, and also owned and operated a fitness center in Beulah. He was interested in economics, politics, astronomy, and mathematics, and wrote a number of papers on these and other subjects. His life-long interest in medicine was employed during his last years to evaluate and attempt to alleviate his heart disease, and he was successful in many respects. He never gave up trying, and was contented by the knowledge that he never gave up hope; his determination was an inspiration to us all. A private family service will take place at a later date. Arrangements by Jowett Family Funeral Home.