Roger Johnson

2013 was a "watershed" year for me. I finally noticed that at age 72 that I had finally "hit the wall." Tennis has become more difficult with a rotator-cuff issue, and a bout in 2013 with cellulitis had certainly taken its toll. But I still plan to go ahead and play more tennis, anyway, and when the snow finally clears away and summer begins, I intend to hit the golf links with abandon! Being a "macho-remnant" certainly has its challenges. But if we stop exercising at the YMCA and trying to stay in some sort of shape, what will happen to us? In 2015 I went under the knife, again, and get some new "hip-bearings." Then it was back to sports as usual. I continue to be so busy with memberships on boards of directors and other numerous community service organizations, that I hardly have time for Vicki's list of projects. I can't believe that I've had 14 surgeries in my life, and the University doctors want to fix both of my shoulders. I'm investigating stem cell therapy so see if that might work.

I expect to have to return soon to my wife's "honey-do" list; that will occupy most of my time between golf, tennis and boating, for the rest of my life!

As a member of the Physics Club in High School, several of us launched and recovered a balloon flight with cosmic ray detection equipment. The other classmates involved were Tom Martin, Orrin Fackler, and Bob LaPerriere. The balloon landed, as I recall, somewhere in Missouri, and the finder sent it back to us. We were all thrilled to think of ourselves as budding scientists that were making inroads on the cutting edge of cosmic ray physics. But, of course, nothing earth-shattering was discovered; yet three of us did go on to become college students majoring in physics. Orrin worked ultimately on validating elementary particle theory, Tom is still working on understanding gravity; I became a college physics teacher and Bob became a dermatologist.