Hospital Board Member Named

Ken Johnson, a Redondo Beach resident who is the community services director of the Los Angeles County Beaches and Harbors Department, has been appointed to the board of the South Bay Hospital District. The public agency provides money for public health programs in Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach and Redondo Beach. A former newspaper executive and chief deputy to former County Supervisor Burton W. Chace, Johnson was appointed to fill the 18 months remaining in the term of longtime board member Gerald R. Witt, who resigned in May when he moved out of the hospital district.

Johnson, whose appointment took effect immediately, was unanimously chosen by the board on the second ballot Thursday after two nominees--Johnson and Dick Fruin, a Manhattan Beach attorney who served on the board from 1980 to 1984, tied 2 to 2 on the first ballot.

Before voting on the first ballot, the name of a third nominee--Lance Widman, an El Camino College political science instructor and former Hermosa Beach city councilman--was withdrawn. Johnson was the only nominee on the second ballot.

Active in beach city community affairs since 1960, Johnson is president of the Redondo Beach Roundtable, an organization of community activists and city officials, and formerly served on the boards of several organizations.