1927 - July 3 1988 Age 61

John M. Bohen Jr., 61, of St. Paul, a teacher at De La Salle High School in Minneapolis for 33 years, died Sunday at St. Paul-Ramsey Medical Center after a long illness.

He was the first baby born in St Paul's Midway Hospital and he later joked about how he had 32 cribs to choose from but showed no preference.

"He was always a happy-go-lucky man, always smiling," said his wife, Donna. When the hospital opened a new maternity section 40 years later, Bohen was invited back. "There's a newspaper clip of him looking at the first baby born in the new section," his wife said.

Bohen attended Cretin High School in St. Paul and later studied biology and American History at the College of St. Thomas in St. Paul. World War II interrupted his college years, and he served as a medic at the Navy hospital in San Diego. After the war he completed his degree and began his teaching career in Belgrade, Minn. He taught there two years and moved back to St. Paul. He was a longtime member of the Knights of Columbus.

In 1954 he began teaching at De La Salle High School and stayed there until his retirement in 1987. "He taught American history, social studies, biology, chemistry, just about everything," his wife said. Later he became a part-time driving instructor for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, teaching students from Cretin and Derham Hall High Schools. He stayed with that job for 20 years.

Besides his wife, he is survived by a son, John Michael Bohen III; a daughter, Jacqueline Hayden, and three grandchildren, all of St. Paul.