The Charles L. and Margaret M. Johnson Memorial Nursing Endowment was established recently by Carol Susan Johnson in honor of her late parents who sacrificed so she could attend nursing school at SUNY Jamestown Community College.
Endowment funds can be used on the Jamestown Campus for continuing education of Nursing program faculty, scholarships for students, and equipment needed for the Nursing program.
Johnson, who most know as Sue, has had a long and distinguished career in nursing since graduating from JCC in 1966.
“We’re incredibly grateful to Sue Johnson for her support of Jamestown Community College,” said Carissa Bentley, executive director of the JCC Foundation. “Her generosity reflects a deep commitment to nursing education and our students’ success. We’re honored to have her as a continuing partner in JCC’s mission.”
Johnson started at JCC in 1964 with a $250 scholarship. Her parents footed the rest of the bill, including out-of-state tuition, so their daughter could follow her passion for nursing and helping others.
“I wanted to do something that honors my parents who were vitally important to my career and my start in life, and always will be,” she said. “I would like them to look down and say, that's really nice that she did that for us.
“And I think they will. I do. I believe in that sort of thing. They're both gone and have been gone many years (Charles died in 2007 at 84, and Margaret in 2012 at 89). They gave me a life that was wonderful. And still is. And their pride in me was something else.”
When Johnson graduated from Bradford Area High School in Pennsylvania in 1964, her father was a lieutenant for the Bradford police department, while her mother was a stay-at-home mom.
“They were probably the two best parents any girl could have had,” Johnson said. “They understood that I needed to make my own way in life, but they did not have a lot of money. Cops did not make much in the force back then. He would paint signs for the city and work the reservoir as a security guard. Sometimes he held three jobs along with the police department. So, he was a busy man.”
Johnson began her professional career as a pediatrics staff nurse at Parkview Health System in July 1966 and stayed at the Fort Wayne, Indiana hospital until her retirement in 2011, advancing to nurse care manager, clinical staff development manager, and finally director of clinical excellence and nursing research.
Johnson, who will be 79 in August, still works as a nursing consultant for RN Innovations LLC, which she founded in 2015.
In addition to her JCC degree, Johnson earned a B.S. in Nursing from Purdue University in 1982, a master's in Public Affairs from Indiana University in 1987, and a Ph.D. in Health Administration from Warren National University in 2007.
When she graduated from JCC, Johnson said her parents “were pleased as punch. And my mother said to me, ‘From now on we want you to keep learning. We want you to keep achieving. It's up to you.’
“She said, ‘We can't pay any more. We have given you a good start ... but if you want to go on with education or want to get another degree you have to go do it.’ And I did.”
Johnson was a recipient of JCC’s Distinguished Alumnus Award in 2015 and delivered the college’s keynote commencement address the same year.
Over the years, Johnson has also written books, authored journal articles, and served on national boards. A devoted philanthropist, she established the Sue Johnson Nursing Scholarship with the Parkview Hospital Foundation in 2011 to provide funding for Parkview nurses pursuing a bachelor’s degree.
“I've never had a job really in this whole 40, 50 something years that I've worked that I didn't like,” Johnson said. “Nobody normally can say that. But I would move from place to place and there was always something to learn. And if there's something to learn that makes you better, that's what I want. And that's what I want for the endowment.”