Dr. Timothy Johnson is retiring from Channel 5 — where the nationally renowned TV doctor got his small screen start — after a 40-year run as the Boston station's award-winning medical editor that led to a slot on "Good Morning America."
"It just seemed like the right time," Johnson said yesterday, just before his WCVB-TV colleagues feted him with a farewell party.
"Forty years is a nice, round number, and I'm 76. I don't want to feel any responsibility to the daily news anymore," he said.
Johnson came to the Bay State to take a job as director of emergency services at Union Hospital in Lynn and later became a fellow at Massachusetts General Hospital.
One of his doctor friends was among the group that launched WCVB in 1972 and asked Johnson to host a new show called "House Call."
Johnson caught the eye of ABC and was invited to appear on "Good Morning America" when it debuted in 1975. He took a full-time job with ABC News in 1984. He stopped actively practicing medicine off-screen that same year.
"I loved medicine, and I loved practicing it," Johnson said. "I loved the emergency room, but I was aware that this was a wonderful way to reach out to a wide audience with information."
He was born and raised in Illinois. He wanted to be a minister but during seminary training he decided to become a doctor after seeing how they could help people "very directly."
Among the people his TV career led him to was a Boston detective dying of Lou Gehrig's disease who spoke "very movingly" about his faith. He died two weeks after Johnson interviewed him. Johnson recalled sitting in his car, "kind of crying about this man who was just a magnificent human being and clearly knew he was dying."
During his Channel 5 career, Johnson also reported on the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy's brain cancer, interviewed former Gov. Mitt Romney and Gov. Deval Patrick about health-care reform, and sat down with medical titans and patients battling grim illnesses.
Johnson, who retired from ABC in 2010, said despite all his years on television, he never felt like a TV personality.
"I've always felt like a doctor who just happens to be on TV," said Johnson, who lives in Marblehead with his wife of nearly 50 years. "I've really always felt like I'm talking to patients, rather than doing any kind of performance."
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