‘Everybody’s favorite doctor’ John Johnston of Teen Health Connection dies at 81

Dr. John Johnston, a longtime Charlotte pediatrician who served as the first medical director of the nonprofit Teen Health Connection, died Tuesday. He was 81.

A Charlotte native, Johnston gave up a lucrative private practice, after 18 years with Charlotte Pediatric Clinic, to take the position at Teen Health Connection when it opened in 1992. That’s where he became known – and loved – as “Dr. J,” said Libby Safrit, the clinic’s current executive director, who Johnston hired 25 years ago.

At that time, the clinic, designed to provide health care for teens who didn’t have doctors, was viewed suspiciously by some Mecklenburg County doctors and citizens who worried it would offer contraception to teens without parental consent and that it would draw patients away from established pediatricians.

“We were starting something that people were kind of wondering about … (but most) doctors were OK with this because they knew what John would bring to this clinic,” said Barbara Ziegler, Teen Health’s first executive director, who was Johnston’s supervisor. “They knew his reputation. He brought such credibility and trust with him.”

Johnston and his wife, Laurie, grew up in Charlotte and were childhood sweethearts. He graduated from Myers Park High School and went to medical school at UNC Chapel Hill, where as a freshman he helped found the oldest student-initiated and student-run free health clinic in the country. He completed pediatric residency at the University of Washington Hospital in Seattle and got a master’s degree in public health at the University of California at Berkeley before returning to Charlotte in 1974.

“He is one of the most beloved pediatricians in town,” Ziegler told the Observer in 2014. “People just adored him because of his way with patients and with families. ... Working with him was just the delight of my life.”

“He was everybody’s favorite doctor,” Safrit agreed. But he was a slow one — because he liked to spend so much time with his patients.

“Nobody likes to wait for the doctor,” she said. “But once Dr. J got into the room, it was like magic.” The angst lifted.

Johnston was originally a member of the search committee to find Teen Health’s first medical director. But a few weeks into the process, he called Ziegler and asked, “If I were interested in this, what would I have to do?” Ziegler said she laughed and told him, “You’d have to resign from the search committee.”

He was hired, and the committee never interviewed another candidate. “That was it,” Ziegler said. “Everybody was thrilled to death. We couldn’t have anybody better. ... He was not out there to make money. His heart was there to make a difference for the kids.”

Dr. J had a love for all teens, both struggling and thriving. When Safrit pitched a Johnston Youth Leadership scholarship, he agreed — on one condition: “It has to be the Johnston Ziegler scholarship.”

The $2,500 scholarship goes to a local teen who “embodies the leadership and concern for the community that Barbara and Dr. J both have,” Safrit said.

When Teen Health became a part of Carolinas HealthCare System (now Atrium Health) in 1997, Johnston also began working with medical residents at Carolinas Medical Center who were training in adolescent medicine.

He had much to share, in part because he was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis when he was 18. That led to a condition called primary sclerosing cholangitis. As a result, he underwent a liver transplant in 1997 at the Mayo Clinic. He came through that and continued working at Teen Health until retirement. In 2005, he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and he came through that treatment as well.

In retirement, Johnston joined Dr. Jessica Schorr Saxe, a now retired primary care physician, in advancing single-payer health insurance through a Charlotte chapter of Physicians for a National Health Program.

“He was retired. He’d been really sick. He could just go fishing, which he likes to do,” Saxe told the Observer in 2014. “But he is very dedicated to the cause of access. ... John saw both the importance of helping people one by one and the importance of seeing that people in general would have access.”

Saxe, who chaired the local chapter of PNHP for years, said she enjoyed working with Johnston because he was humble and charming. “He doesn’t want to be in the limelight. He just does it because it’s right. There aren’t too many people in the world, let alone physicians in the world, that are like that. I can’t say enough nice about him.”

His pride for the clinic gripped him — and his wardrobe — well after his retirement. Two months ago, when Safrit visited Johnston in his living room, he was still sporting a smile and his Teen Health Connection fleece from its 30th anniversary last year.

Johnston is survived by his wife, Laurie, of Sharon Towers; a son, Gardner (Sarah) Johnston of Hood River, Oregon, and two granddaughters, Riley and Tate. He was preceded in death by a daughter, Paige Johnston Thomas. A memorial service will be held at 1 p.m. Aug. 10 at Myers Park Baptist Church in Charlotte.

Observer reporter Julia Coin contributed.