In Memoriam: Jenny M. Johansen

1943-2011

by Ken Miller, CHP, Betsy Ullrich, CHP, and Mary Moore

The Health Physics Society (HPS) and profession lost yet another kind, honorable, capable, and contributing member. Jenny M. Johansen died peacefully on 26 July 2011 while on a flight from Pennsylvania to North Dakota to attend her high school reunion. Jenny retired from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) in July 2010 after a distinguished career that spanned more than 30 years.

Jenny received her bachelor’s degree in 1965 from Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota, and her master’s degree in radiological health physics from North Dakota State University in Fargo, North Dakota, in 1969. After completing the U.S. Public Health Service Fellowship and receiving her degree, Jenny held positions as radiation safety officer (RSO), health physicist, chemist, and radiopharmacist, respectively, at Tufts University, Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, and the Joint Center for Radiation Therapy, Harvard Medical School. In 1974, she accepted the position of RSO at the University of Delaware, where she was also promoted to safety coordinator in 1976. In 1980, she left the University of Delaware to join the NRC.

At the NRC, Jenny held numerous positions in various materials-inspection and licensing programs and project management in Region I, King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, and at the Office of Enforcement, Rockville, Maryland. Listed among her many titles at NRC were radiation specialist, senior health physicist, enforcement specialist, section chief, technical assistant, and senior project manager. At the time of her retirement, she was serving as a health physicist in the Materials Security and Industrial Branch, Division of Nuclear Materials Safety, Region I.

Those of us who knew Jenny and had the opportunity to work with or interact with her greatly appreciated her approach to regulatory inspections and licensing requirements. Jenny was a performance-based inspector long before that became the new modus operandi. She consistently balanced maintaining the highest standards with a practical and reasonable approach to any issue. She tried to instill this approach in the new inspectors she mentored in Region I. Her experience enabled her to view situations from the licensee’s perspective, as well as that of the regulator. When approached with licensing questions, she was always willing to help. The depth and extent of her licensing expertise allowed her to quickly provide assistance or to refer the requestor to the best source for the answer. She always followed through on her commitments.

Jenny was an active and contributing member of the HPS, having served on numerous committees, as chair of the Rules Committee, and as Parliamentarian. She was National Registry of Radiation Protection Technologists registered and a member of the Government Section. At the local level, she was active in the Delaware Valley Society for Radiation Safety, where she served in several elected positions, including secretary, president-elect, and president.

In spite of all that she accomplished in her health physics career, Jenny will be best remembered for her warm and wonderful personality and her charming Norwegian accent. She was totally devoted to her parents, who came from North Dakota to visit her often in her home in Pottstown, Pennsylvania. Whenever they visited, Jenny always found an excuse to share these delightful people with her friends. They were professional bakers and made the most delicious Norwegian pastries, cookies, and cheesecakes. After her parents passed away, Jenny continued the tradition because she had inherited their love and skill for baking. Jenny is survived by three brothers: Kjell, also a health physicist, living in Wisconsin with his wife, son, and daughter; Norman in Minneapolis; and Bjarne in Seville, Spain, with his wife and son. Jenny was a true professional and a wonderful, warm, and considerate friend. She will be missed by her family, friends, colleagues, and beloved shelties.

Remembering Jenny

by Margaret E. McCarthy, 28 September 2021

A while ago, I was reading the obits about women in health physics on the Women In Memoriam page of the Health Physics Society website and, to my surprise, chanced across the one on Jenny Johansen. I had lost contact with her when I became emerita in 2005 from all my professional societies.

I met Jenny in Boston, Massachusetts, at the Joint Center for Radiation Therapy in 1970. I was a radiation safety officer (RSO) when she was the radiation specialist who transported the radioactive material to surgery and checked in on the Nuclear Medicine Department's compliance. One of the missions to me, new to the area and the job, was to be in charge of cleaning out storage rooms in the Shields Warren Building, move the materials to another location, and make the space suitable for offices. I groaned under the thought of all those personnel work orders and training when Jenny suggested that she and I just "do it" as the other paperwork cleared and we were not treading into union territory. One weekend we just "did it" and there was a completed item to report to the RSO committee.

Then I moved to western Massachusetts to complete my final degree and work at a community college teaching physics, mostly related to the medical world. At the same time, Jenny was appointed the RSO for the University of Delaware. We became reacquainted when she appeared at my office door as an inspector of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for nuclear medicine laboratory compliance. Her MO was to surprise the first site and inspect, knowing that the lab would contact other labs in the area. Then she would arrive at 4 am at the next site to pre-empt an early elution of the generator. Then she would say goodbye to the site and me, inspect another in a distant area, and return for a surprise visit back to Springfield and me. Ah, you again?

One of our conversations moved to the topic of "do we like our current jobs and was the professional move worth the effort and the risk?" "Margaret!"—as she would say in that Norwegian pitch and cadence—"Last year I was number two in the number of licences I completed. I want to be number one. I love my job."

From a trip to Norway where she was born, she brought me a gift of a large Christmas silver bell that has imprinted on it "God Jul," which to me translates and rings out as "ethical, conscientious, competent."