For a long time Roger Johnson held the New Zealand 400m hurdles flag aloft. He represented New Zealand at the 1968 Mexico City and 1972 Munich Olympics, as well as the 1966 Kingston, 1970 Edinburgh and 1974 Christchurch Commonwealth Games.

Johnson, born in Dunedin in 1943, was the son of leading athletics figure Ossie Johnson and swimmer Lorna Waddell. As distinguished as his career was on the track, he achieved even more once he retired from top athletics and devoted himself to academia.

He emerged from Otago Boys’ High School in the early 1960s as an outstanding runner in a discipline not attempted by too many New Zealanders, though there was always the example of 1952 Olympic bronze medallist Dutch Holland to draw inspiration from.

After winning national titles in 1963 and 1963 (he was to win a third in 1974), Johnson earned an athletics scholarship to UCLA and starred on the track team. He shone in inter-collegiate meets and in 1967 was co-captain of the track team that won the NCAA title.

Johnson’s first Commonwealth Games was at Jamaica in 1966. In the 440 yards hurdles, his time of 51.7s placed him 4th in his heat and earned him a berth in the final. He had a nightmare time of it in the final, recording 56s for 7th.

In Edinburgh in 1970 he missed out on the final. He was timed at 51.9s in his heat, but in the semi-final his 52.0s effort wasn’t fast enough.

On to Christchurch in 1974, Johnson again negotiated the heat comfortably with 52.9s, but his 52.5s in the semi-final left him 12th overall and not in the final.

Johnson also appeared at two Olympics. In Mexico City in 1968, he was second in his heat in 51.3s, with four to progress to the semi-finals. There he was outgunned and his 51.8s left him 14th overall.

The New Zealander hoped for better at the 1972 Munich Olympics, but though he improved to 50.48s in his heat, he was only 18th overall with 16 to move forward to the semi-finals. That time was the second fastest of his career.

Johnson's fastest 400m hurdles effort was 49.8s, set in 1972 Los Angeles. This remained the New Zealand record for 42 years, until it was broken by Michael Cochrane in 2014 and 10 years later was still 3rd on the all-time list.

After receiving his PhD from the Graduate School of Management at UCLA in 1973, Johnson joined the faculty of Otago University and was promoted to the dean of commerce from 1976-79. He became an associate professor at the UCLA Anderson School of Business, and an associate professor of operations management at the University of Michigan School of Business Administration.

His research interests included assembly-line balancing and management, project management, branch-and-bound methods, facility layout and flexible manufacturing systems. Several of his research works were published.

Upon retirement, he settled in Scotland.

Roger Johnson

Biography

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