The following information is provided for the benefit of those who may have know this gentleman. I have no other information about him. Please feel free to pass it along as you wish. It comes from the Austin, Texas, Austin American-Statesman, Sunday, March 24, 2002: William Richard JOHNSON William Richard JOHNSON, a physician, gentleman, and Scotsman came to the end of his long struggle with emphysema on the night of March 20, 2002, cared for lovingly and compassionately by the staff member of Hospice Austin and Buckner Villas nursing facility, with help from neighbors. He was born in Edinburgh in 1922 of Master Mariner David Anderson JOHNSON and Eliza Jane JOHNSON (nee LEASK). He received a medical degree from the University of Edinburgh in 1945. He was House Surgeon of the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary for a year before serving as a Lieutenant in the British Royal Air Force for two years. For thirteen years he had a general medical practice in England, and he was a founding member of the Royal British College of Family Practice before moving to Texas in 1963 to serve small communities in East Texas and then Houston where he had staff privileges at several area hospitals. He became a naturalized United States citizen in 1967. He was a member of the British Medical Association, the American Medical Association, the Texas Medical Association, the Travis County Medical Society, the American College of Family Practitioners, and the Southern Medical Association. In 1971, he received a Master of Public Health degree from the university of Texas School of Public Health and moved to Austin shortly thereafter and worked as Medical Director of the State Department of Public Welfare, as a physician for the City of Austin Model Cities Clinic, the Travis State School, the Texas Department of Health, and the Texas Legislature. For a brief time he returned to the Houston area to work at the Richmond State School. Throughout his medical career, Dr. JOHNSON was described as conscientious, scholarly, kind, and attentive to patients and their relatives, courteous, delightful, diligent beyond expectation, thorough, and inspiring. Twenty years ago, he lost his wife to breast cancer, followed by the loss of his oldest daughter to the same disease in 1984. After undertaking the care of his granddaughter for several years, she too, died of the same disease, followed three years ago by the death of his brother. In October 1999, his youngest daughter, a medical doctor trained in psychiatry, died at the age of 50. Dr. JOHNSON was fond of fellow Scotsman and poet Robert Burns, whom he affectionately called Bobby Burns, and who poem "Prayer Under the Pressure of Violent Anguish" must have held special meaning for him: O Thou Great Being! what Thou art Surpass me to know; Yet sure I am, that known to Thee Are all Thy works below. Thy creature here before Thee stands, All wretched and distressed; Yet sure those ills that wring my soul Obey Thy high behest. Sure Thou, Almighty, canst not act >From cruelty or wrath! O, free my weary eyes from tears, Or close them fast in death! But, if I must afflicted be To suit some wise design, Then man my soul with firm resolves To bear and not repine! Dr. JOHNSON was never heard to express discontent with his lot in life, and his compassion continues beyond his death. Memorials to his name are encouraged to the Salvation Army, to the Austin Memorial and Burial Information Society, and to the American Cancer society. As was his wish, his body was cremated and followed by private services.