Dr. Robert Elsworth Littlejohn Jr.

Robert Elsworth LittlejohnA service for Dr. Robert Elsworth Littlejohn will be held at 3 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 1,5 at the Sequim Seventh-day Adventist Church, 30 Sanford Lane.He was born March 9, 1919, in Olympia to Ralph and Elna Littlejohn.His father died when he was only 4, so he, his mother and sister moved in with his grandfather.He spent time during the summers at his grandfather's logging camps around Hood's Canal where he explored many of the trails in the area.He joined the Boy Scouts when he was 12 and became an Eagle Scout in two years.He graduated from Washington State University where he met his wife, Nan Woolsey.She preceded him in death after 63 years of marriage.He attended medical school at Cornell University in New York City.The Littlejohns loved their time in New York, but he had enlisted in the Army when the war broke out and was assigned to an evacuation hospital in France and Germany as soon as he completed his medical training.Once he completed his military obligations, he interned at Loma Linda University.The family moved to Sequim in 1948 to begin his medical practice. He later bought the "Old Folks Home" as it was on the verge of being closed.He gradually replaced the old building and renamed it Sequim Nursing Center.He later purchased the Thompson farm and started Sherwood Village.He also helped to develop Sherwood Manor, The Fifth Avenue Retirement Home and the Medical Plaza.

Robert Elsworth LittlejohnA service for Dr. Robert Elsworth Littlejohn will be held at 3 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 1,5 at the Sequim Seventh-day Adventist Church, 30 Sanford Lane.He was born March 9, 1919, in Olympia to Ralph and Elna Littlejohn.His father died when he was only 4, so he, his mother and sister moved in with his grandfather.He spent time during the summers at his grandfather's logging camps around Hood's Canal where he explored many of the trails in the area.He joined the Boy Scouts when he was 12 and became an Eagle Scout in two years.He graduated from Washington State University where he met his wife, Nan Woolsey.She preceded him in death after 63 years of marriage.He attended medical school at Cornell University in New York City.The Littlejohns loved their time in New York, but he had enlisted in the Army when the war broke out and was assigned to an evacuation hospital in France and Germany as soon as he completed his medical training.Once he completed his military obligations, he interned at Loma Linda University.The family moved to Sequim in 1948 to begin his medical practice. He later bought the "Old Folks Home" as it was on the verge of being closed.He gradually replaced the old building and renamed it Sequim Nursing Center.He later purchased the Thompson farm and started Sherwood Village.He also helped to develop Sherwood Manor, The Fifth Avenue Retirement Home and the Medical Plaza.

Dr. Robert Littlejohn
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From being Sequim's only doctor in the late 1940s to one of Olympic Memorial's first doctors in the 1950s, most everyone in eastern Clallam County knew Dr. Robert Littlejohn.He and Georgie Knapp are the 2003 Irrigation Festival honorary grand pioneers."I never thought about it," said Littlejohn."I am absolutely flattered."Littlejohn not only was one of the first physicians at the hospital when it opened in November 1951, he and his wife, Nan, helped initiate the maternity wing when their daughter Lois was born during the hospital's first year.He drove from Sequim to the Port Angeles hospital as many as three times a day, then made house calls at night.Only one other physician was in the Sequim area, Littlejohn recalled, when he arrived here in 1948.Retired since 1984, the doctor remembers treating most people in the area and handling most illnesses or injuries.After a stint in the Army in 1945 and a medical residency in California, Littlejohn made his way to Sequim.
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Days were spent at the clinic or the hospital, but most nights, Littlejohn said, meant a house call to another patient, even if it meant jumping into a rowboat to see a patient stranded at a lighthouse.