Tim Johnson obit

Former U.S. Senator Tim Johnson passes away

 

He was not on the list.

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (Dakota News Now) - The family of longtime Senator Tim Johnson announced he passed away Tuesday evening in Sioux Falls. He was 77.

After nearly a decade in the South Dakota State Legislature, Johnson served five terms as a United States Representative from 1987 to 1997 and then served three terms as a U.S. Senator from 1997 until 2015.

He is the last Democrat to hold statewide or congressional office in South Dakota.

The family of the Vermillion native cited complications from a recent stroke and said Johnson was surrounded by family at the time.

“As a fourth generation South Dakotan, fighting for the state he loved was the greatest privilege of his life, but he considered his family his greatest blessing. Watching his three children and eight grandchildren grow and thrive with Barbara, his wife of 55 years, at his side brought him immense pride and joy.”

“Tim always quipped that neither the left, nor the right, had a monopoly on all of the good ideas, but that working together, we can find common ground for the good of our country. In his work and life, Tim showed us never to give up. He will be missed. Our lives are fuller for having been loved and supported by him.”

Tim Johnson's family

Johnson shares three children and eight grandchildren with his wife Barbara.

Details for services will be released soon. Stay with Dakota News Now for any developments.

A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the United States representative for South Dakota's at-large congressional district from 1987 to 1997 and in the state legislature from 1979 to 1987. Johnson is the last Democrat to hold statewide and/or congressional office in South Dakota. He and Stephanie Herseth are also the last Democrats to win a statewide election in South Dakota, as well as a federal election.

Johnson was born in Canton, South Dakota, the son of Ruth Jorinda (née Ljostveit), a homemaker, and Vandel Charles Johnson, an educator. He has Norwegian, Swedish and Danish ancestry. Raised in Vermillion, Johnson earned a B.A. in 1969 and an M.A. in 1970 from the University of South Dakota, where he was a member of the Delta Tau Delta fraternity.

After doing post-graduate studies at Michigan State University from 1970 to 1971, a period during which he worked for the Michigan Senate, Johnson returned to Vermillion to attend the University of South Dakota School of Law and earned his J.D. in 1975; he went into private practice immediately thereafter. He did not take the bar exam as he was admitted to the South Dakota bar under the state's diploma privilege.

Johnson served in the South Dakota House of Representatives from 1979 to 1982 and in the South Dakota Senate from 1983 to 1986. He served as Clay County deputy state's attorney in 1985 during his tenure in the South Dakota Senate. He was elected to the United States House of Representatives from South Dakota's at-large congressional district in 1986. During his first term, he introduced more legislation than any other freshman member of the House. Between 1991 and 1994, he served as a regional whip for the Democratic Party. He left the House in 1997, when his Senate tenure began.

In December 2006, Johnson suffered a brain hemorrhage. He returned to his full schedule in the Senate on September 5, 2007, to both tributes and standing ovations.

During his tenure in Congress, Johnson supported infrastructure projects that delivered clean drinking water to communities throughout South Dakota and into surrounding states. He authored several water project bills, resulting in clean drinking water being delivered to hundreds of thousands of South Dakota families.

During his first term in the House of Representatives, Johnson authored the Mni Wiconi Project Act of 1988 (H.R. 2772, enacted into law as Public Law 100–516). The measure authorized construction of a water project serving an area of southwestern South Dakota that included the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, an area that had long suffered low water supplies and poor water quality. In subsequent years, Johnson authored legislation (H.R. 3954) to expand the Mni Wiconi Rural Water Project service area, and the expansion was incorporated into a broader bill and enacted as Public Law 103-434.

Johnson's Mid Dakota Rural Water System Act of 1991 (H.R. 616) was incorporated into a larger package of infrastructure projects and enacted into law as Public Law 102-575. The Mid Dakota Rural Water Project was completed in 2006 and serves more than 30,000 residents of east-central South Dakota.

The Fall River Rural Water Users District Rural Water System Act of 1998 (S. 744 in the 105th Congress, enacted as Public Law 105–352) authorized the Bureau of Reclamation to construct a rural water system in Fall River County of South Dakota. After years of drought, residents in the southeastern area of that county had been left without a suitable water supply, and many of them were forced to either haul water or use bottled water because of poor water quality.

The Lewis and Clark Rural Water System Act of 1999 (S.244 in the 106th Congress) authorized construction of a water delivery system spanning a broad area of southeastern South Dakota, northwestern Iowa, and southwestern Minnesota. The system joined 22 rural water systems and communities.

The authorized project was intended to bring clean, safe drinking water to 180,000 individuals[16] throughout the Lewis and Clark service region. The Perkins County Rural Water System Act (S.2117 in the 105th Congress and S.243 in the 106th Congress, enacted as Public Law 106–136) authorized the Bureau of Reclamation to construct a rural water system in Perkins County of South Dakota, serving approximately 2,500 residents including the communities of Lemmon and Bison.