John David Armstrong II, MD MA

John David Armstrong II, MD MA (philosophy), 85, of Bozeman, MT, passed peacefully July 22, 2024, at this home surrounded by his loving family.

When John was a boy in Topeka, during World War II, he would go to the store with the family’s coupons for food. Among other things at that time - fuel, leather, and meat were rationed for the war effort. It was a time in life when John, his sister Nancy, and his folks John and Mary, made tremendous sacrifices for one another and for the people of this country. One time, he remembered, he lost the coupons! It meant no food for a time during a time of war. John remembered the anguish he felt at losing the coupons. Just two weeks ago he and his sister remembered to the gathered family, that all of the vehicles that delivered milk and ice were replaced by horse and cart ice so that vehicles and fuel could be used elsewhere. The responsibility he felt, the guilt at the loss of the coupons, was a profound memory for him. This common sacrifice joined and connected people. These hardships created a sense of duty and caring in John towards other people that he carried through with him until the very end of his life. 

 With the end of the war, John grew into a man. As he grew, he and his best friend, Tom, went to jazz clubs in Chicago where they would listen to the music and enjoy their drink limit of two cokes. Musically inclined and a natural singer, John learned how to play the drums. The bands he played and sang with, Jim Fleming and the Casuals and the Palisades, appeared on the iconic TV show, American Bandstand, and backed such artists as Chuck Berry and Muddy Waters. The band cut several 45rpm records. In the weeks leading up to John’s death, his family and friends listened to his records with him while he sang along as if he was again on stage.

 John, perhaps to his chagrin but to everyone else’s benefit, gave up the rock and roll life. He and his beloved lifelong wife, Lois, pursued careers in medicine. John took his family, including his new son John (JD), to Scotland where he studied medicine. The three of them spent a year in Scotland on a total of $4,000.00. John and his family received a portion of that money from an anonymous benefactor who saw the potential in him to use the money and his education to good purpose. Perhaps because of this anonymous act of beneficence, John and Lois created a modest scholarship for one student per year at his alma mater, Kansas University. The scholarship is funded to last in perpetuity.

 John’s specialty in medicine was chest and lung radiology. He and his growing family, now with Jason and Judson, lived for a time in Bethesda, Maryland. John was a naval officer and physician where he attended to the needs of veterans. While attending to the needs of “the grunts,” he also performed routine medical exams on such governmental luminaries as POTUS. One time, during a routine physical, John – Dr. Armstrong – palpated President Nixon’s prostate to assure its good health!

 With the call of the west and the mountains, and possessed by their ever-present wanderlust, John and his young family made their way to Salt Lake City, Utah. Getting off the plane in his new home he declared, “This is the place!” John worked at the Veteran’s Administration Hospital and the University of Utah as a chest radiologist and teacher. The family enjoyed, among other things, season passes to Snowbird where the ticket prices were seven ($7.00) dollars a day as well as family dinners and conversation around the dinner table that remains a part of his home to this day. John often performed stitching and bandaging on the neighborhood kids after they were injured while playing. Frequently during the summer, a neighbor and their son or daughter might appear at the front door with an open wound or fractured bone. John always assisted as best he could. 

 It was during his time in Utah that he helped develop and refine the Jarvik 7 mechanical heart! One time he attended a son’s sophomore science class where he described to the students the way the mechanical heart attempted to replicate a human heart. John remembered, while holding the patient with the newly installed mechanical heart, how unnaturally the patient’s body rocked and moved with the mechanical pumping action of the artificial heart. John taught medicine to students around the globe. John’s philosophy was patient-centered; he treated the entire patient, not just the patient’s body. He imparted this philosophy to students with the goal to treat and care for the whole person. He accomplished his goal.

 The adventures that John and Lois found in the mountains and deserts of Utah were endless. The family enjoyed camping around the west and the boys grew into men in a VW bus. Perhaps John and Lois had to manage crashed cars, fraternal fights, and the occasional situation of vandalism perpetrated by one or another son. And really, what parent doesn’t? John and Lois managed these situations with patience and with love. John would often attend to the boys’ soccer games after leaving the reading room at either hospital. On the weekends, John and Lois attended AYSO games where John volunteered as a referee. Saturday’s soccer games with three boys were always a fun adventure. John and Lois managed to carve out quality time for the family while also taking care of the business of living. 

 The family spent a year living in London in 1978-79 where the boys attended British schools and John worked and taught at the Hammersmith Hospital in East Acton, London. Also living there at that time were his sister Nancy, her husband, Steve, and their two boys, Todd and Gray. The family rode around in double-decker buses when not traveling in their, you guessed it, VW bus. The memories created by time spent with siblings and cousins live on to this day. John and Lois and the boys traveled to Wales and Ireland and Scotland. Scotland is the ancestral home of the Armstrong Clan whose motto is “Invictus Maneo.” This is Latin for “I remain unvanquished.”

 John and Lois later moved to Colorado and John returned to undergraduate school. He studied ethics and philosophy for the purpose of creating a medical ethics group at the University of Colorado, Denver, where he was then working and which he did. John always managed to accomplish his goals. John helped thousands of people with complicated medical issues. He worked to ameliorate physical pain through palliative care. He attempted to bring a different kind of care and dignity into the sterile world of medicine – for the sick, the dying, and the well – and if you asked some of his hundreds and hundreds - if not thousands - of students, they likely would attest to his effectiveness as a teacher, physician, and humanitarian. He was a humanitarian throughout his career and his life. 

 John and Lois grew older and still closer over the years. Landing in Bozeman, in 2012, the couple enjoyed new friends who have remained beloved friends to him up the very end. Now, with six grandchildren, John and Lois spent most of their time traveling around the country to visit with kids and grandkids and around the globe to visit friends and see the world. The grandkids called them Grand Papa and Grand Mama. The couple’s travels took them to Michigan and Salt Lake often. John spent time in his later years tracking down family members in the family tree. With each person John and Lois met, they attempted to provide the necessary ingredients for a thriving and loving sense of self. Grand Mama, who died in 2018, is now represented by a massive and thriving Christmas Cactus that John loved and nurtured until he could no longer do it. It was surmised recently by a lifelong friend of John and Lois’s, whom they met at Cottonwood Presbyterian Church in SLC, that upon the death of his “Beloved Loli,” a part of the fire that burned inside of John also died. Most likely his friend was correct. John and Loli shared a love that buoyed them through life’s storms and fostered passion between them. They shared that love and passion for life with everyone they came across.

 John died peacefully in his bed. Family and friends were by his side. His sons and grandchildren read poetry and played cribbage together in his room. His grandsons and granddaughters, as well as friends from around the world, shared their words with him in writings.

 Now John speaks no more words. The rules that proscribed the life of John – duty, tenderness, patience, and love – no longer exist for him. Those “rules” continue with his family and his friends. 

 He wishes all of you “love love.”