After a meaningful and productive life filled with the love of his family and the respect of his colleagues, Robert J. Johnson, MD passed away on February 2, 2026. To his many friends and family, he was known as Bob or Johns.
The son of Virginia (Carney) and Robert Johnson II, Bob was born on August 7, 1939, in Iowa Falls, Iowa. He attended Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and received his medical degree from the University of Iowa in 1964. He completed his surgical internship at Philadelphia General Hospital and later returned to the University of Iowa for orthopedic residency training. After serving as chief of orthopaedics and hospital services during a tour of duty in the United States Air Force at Loring Air Force Base in Maine, he arrived in Vermont in 1971. He first accepted an appointment as assistant professor of orthopaedic surgery in the University of Vermont College of Medicine and was promoted to professor in 1980. Additional training along the way included a fellowship in sports medicine from 1978 to 1979 at Karolinska Hospital in Stockholm, Sweden. Bob was named the McClure Professor of Musculoskeletal Research in August 1994 and held this title until 2005, when he retired from the University of Vermont Department of Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation as professor emeritus.
Research was a passion and a key driving force behind Bob’s professional career. His investigation of knee biomechanics and injuries paved the way for improved clinical outcomes, and in that capacity he was an ambassador for the scientific approach to advancing sports medicine. His life’s work led him to publish hundreds of articles, papers, abstracts and book chapters. He also received significant research funding from multiple sources, including the National Institutes of Health.
Throughout his career, a primary focus of Bob’s research was the field of ski safety. After seeing patients and performing surgery on weekdays in Burlington, Vt., his winter weekends were spent 45 minutes away at Sugarbush Ski Area, where he conducted a groundbreaking 49-year study on the cause and analysis of ski injuries. Bob ran the medical clinic while a team of engineers assessed patients’ ski equipment. Research findings from this collaboration led ski and binding manufacturers to improve their designs and changed standard practices in how ski shop technicians set and inspect equipment to prevent injuries.
Bob’s focus on scientific study also led to his involvement with numerous organizations in which he enjoyed the camaraderie of like-minded professionals and true friends. He was a founding member of the Herodicus Society, a premier forum for sports medicine research exchange. In 1987 he served as that organization’s president. In the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS), he was president from 1993 to 1994 and was honored to serve as Godfather for the Traveling Fellows in 1996 and to be chosen as Mr. Sports Medicine in 2002. A highlight of his career was receiving an AAOS Kappa Delta Award in 1994 for outstanding, high-impact research. The International Society of Ski Safety was another of Bob’s professional organizations. He was not only a founding member but also served as president from 1989 to 1997. He became an honorary lifetime member in 2005.
While focused on a robust professional career, Bob cultivated friendships and professional relationships that were meaningful. Letters received upon his 2005 retirement as a surgeon underscored the impact he had on the early careers of a vast array of professionals treating patients with orthopaedic-related injuries. It is no wonder; teaching was a passion. In these same letters, colleagues described him as honest, humble, hardworking and possessing a strong sense of scientific integrity. He also truly cared about others and found fun amid hard work, which led not only to long-term professional partnerships but also to lifelong friendships the world over.
Bob’s favorite things in life extended beyond his role as an orthopaedic surgeon and researcher. He could often be found at his wood pile, using an ax and wedge to split wood that he then meticulously stacked for use in his family’s woodstove. He cherished his collection of Native American artifacts and loved astronomy. He was a huge fan of college football, especially his beloved Iowa Hawkeyes. In recent years, with the rise of Caitlin Clark, he also enthusiastically followed Iowa women’s basketball. Bob loved to travel for research presentations but also for leisure. With his wife, Shirley, he went on birding trips to the far corners of the world, including Papua New Guinea, South Africa and the Galapagos Islands.
Most importantly, Bob was a loving, fun and present husband and father. He was married to Shirley (Siefken) for 62 years and was a proud dad to daughters Jennifer Muse (Jay) of Pittsburgh and Tamara Wehrman (Jed) of Lyman, Maine. In addition to these immediate family members, he is survived by his five grandchildren, Anna, Henry and Thomas Muse; and Elsie and George Wehrman. Other family members include Burak Buyukfirat, his Turkish adoptive son through the American Field Service exchange program, as well as his brother, Bill Johnson (Jan) of Altus, Okla.
A celebration of Bob’s life is planned for a future date. In lieu of flowers, the family gratefully acknowledges donations given in his memory. These gifts will be used to support Orthopaedic Sports Medicine Research, a program Bob started in 1971, within the Department of Orthopaedics at the Larner College of Medicine, University of Vermont. Donations can be made in the name of Dr. Robert J. Johnson and sent to the UVM Foundation, 411 Main St., Burlington, VT 05401.
This article appears in February 11 • 2026.
Dr. Johnson will be sorely missed by many. I was a UVM basketball player in 66/67 and tore my ACL the beginning of my junior year. In 1972 Dr. Johnson operated on my left knee, performing a McIntosh procedure/innovative at the time. He also performed a meniscus repair. I have since run over 60,oo0 miles and still running at 79.
All thanks to Dr. Johnson. Condolences for his family. Thank you Dr. Johnson, rest in peace.
He was my favorite US ortho and sports medicine colleague! Wonderful knowledge, wonderful humor! A true loss til our sports trauma and medicine community! We should all learn from him!
He was my doctor: always clear, honest, direct and optimistic – really knew how to tell it straight. He was a faculty member: always willing to jump in and serve whenever asked. He was a revered researcher who was a leader in his field. A man who was respected and looked to for advice and guidance. I feel fortunate to have known him.
I am an orthopedic surgeon who also trained at Iowa. My interesting experience with Bob was far before I became an orthopedic surgeon. I was a ski racer, racing in the spring series on the East Coast one spring years ago, as a teenager. I’d injured my knee and somehow the word got to him and he opened up to see me at his clinic on a Saturday morning. I remembered that experience as I got into residency, as read about all of his works. He and Carl Ettlinger were an amazing pair that really were forward thinking in ski binding safety. I actually purchased The Knee binding that their research modeled after. I figured as a knee surgeon myself I needed to represent their work! Bless his family and his work and his life. What a great man he was!
Andrea
Sad news indeed that we lost Bob – a great colleague and friend. In my view, he was a true clinician-scientist/engineer, a pioneering investigator and a dedicated leader in the Orthopaedic Sports Medicine profession. More importantly, we remember Bob as a caring physician, educator and gentleman. I wish to dedicate my next lecture on Artificial Intelligence (AIFX version3.1) in Bob’s memory!
Pattie and I send our deep condolences to Shirley and their family!
He was my dear friend, I met during my Karolinska days, in 1978-79. Together we did many sports surgery operations, with Ejnar Eriksson. On the 1978 Thanksgiving Day, he invited Ejnar, Greta, and me to his home in the suburbs of Stockholm. It was a warm dinner with Bob, Shirley, Tammy, and Jenny. I also had the chance to invite him in our congress in Türkiye, he came enthusiastically with his colleague, Kenneth DeHaven. He was a bright scientist who has great contributions in the field of arthroscopy, knee surgery and sports traumatology. I am deeply saddened by his passing and extend my sincerest condolences to his family and his loved ones.
Dr. Johnson and I had gone to New York City to do some work on biomechanics at local hospital. We arrived a day early and I suggested we have supper at a Japanese restaurant with a floor show, since we didn’t have one in Burlington, Vermont at that time. We had discussed it on the plane coming into New York and took a taxicab to such a restaurant on 56th Street, which I had found in the New York phone book. When we arrived, we entered and a Japanese fellow in a black suit with size 5 black shoes came out of the bar and asked: “Can I help you?” I immediately replied with a question: “Do you have a show here?” He turned quickly and shouted into the bar: “SHO!? Mr. SHO!?” There was obviously no answer and he turned back with: “Sorry, Mr. SHO not here.” I immediately looked at Dr. Johnson, who was doing everything he could to stop from laughing. “We’re eating here,” Dr. Johnson whispered. I found out years later that Sho is a common name in Japan.
Very sad to hear about the death of Bob Johnson, a wonderful person in every aspect. I met him, together with Ejnar Ericksson, the first time in 1989 at an ISSS conference in Riksgränsen. At the end of the conference, where I presented our projects of artificial ACL, Bob said to me: keep coming and tell us what you are doing. A few years later I had the honour to fly with Bob as the godfather with some fellows from Basel to Grenchen along the Swiss alps. In Basel they met Werner Müller and from Grenchen they continued to meet Roland Biedert in Magglingen.