H. Richard Johnson
April 26, 1926-Dec. 9, 2012
Palo Alto, California
Submitted by Russell Johnson
H. Richard (Dick) Johnson, founder, President and Chief Executive Officer of Watkins Johnson Company, as well as a 55-year resident of Palo Alto, died Dec. 9 surrounded by his loving family. Dick is remembered for his many extraordinary achievements as a family leader, businessman, community volunteer, philanthropist and outdoorsman. Dick was laid to rest at Alta Mesa cemetery in Palo Alto.
Dick leaves his two daughters, Lucinda Louise Gobin, and Karen Ann Schlaich, as well as his three sons, Richard Adam Johnson, Russell Kleckner Johnson, and David Thorp Johnson. Dick also leaves his 15 grandchildren: Christopher Way, Damien Way, Ricky Sharf, Tal Sharf, Jonathan Sharf, Mary Ann Sharf, Kathryn Schlaich, Jennifer Schlaich, Adam Johnson, Lauren Johnson, Eric Johnson, Matt Johnson, Ryan Johnson, Nick Johnson, Stefano Johnson; and four great-grandchildren Molly Way, Andrew Way, Louise Way, and Benjamin Sharf. Dick was predeceased by his grandson, Jeffrey Russell Johnson.
"Dick" moved with his family from Jersey City, N.J., to Teaneck, N.J., when he was one year old. He attended the public schools there, played tennis, and was active in science clubs. He attended Christ Episcopal Church there, and was confirmed. As a teenager he decided to become an electrical engineer. He belonged to BoyScout Troop 107; attended Camp No-Be-Bo Sco operated by the North BergenBoy Scout Council in Blairstown, N.J., first as a camper and during the summers when he was 15 and 16 as an employee, counselor and telephone-system repairman; and achieved Eagle rank. Pearl Harbor was attacked by the Japanese when he was 15. He was admitted to Cornell University as a civilian, and passed written and physical tests qualifying him for the U.S. Navy V-12 officer training program, and enlisted in the Navy as an apprentice seaman in July 1943 at the age of 17. He was sent to Cornell, issued uniforms, fed, housed, paid $50/month, and enrolled in the electrical engineering curriculum. He received his Bachelor of Electrical Engineering degree with distinction in February 1946 and was commissioned ensign. Although the war had ended the previous summer, he was sent to Newport, R.I., for about four weeks training and then assigned, with about 600 other ensigns, to the crew's quarters aboard the U.S.S. Montpelier, a light cruiser. In July 1946 he was transferred to inactive reserve. He was a graduate assistant in Physics at Cornell during fall 1946 and spring 1947, when he applied for a four-year all-expenses research laboratory of electronics fellowship at M.I.T. using his good Cornell record plus references from professors Richard P. Feynman and Philip Morrison as well as physics chairman L.P. Smith. This was granted so he started in the physics department at M.I.T. in fall 1947. He completed work for the Ph.D. degree there in November 1951 with a thesis in microwave spectroscopy.
During the summer of 1949 he and his Italian M.I.T. roommate Franco Bosinelli vacationed on an American Youth Hostel bicycle trip, where he met Mary Louise Kleckner, a strong, intelligent and beautiful young lady who was vacationing from her profession of nursing. They were destined to spend a lifetime together. The following summer they married. They planned to spend a year in France following school, but when offered a Fulbright fellowship too small, they decided to "go west" instead. They borrowed money from his parents, bought a car, and drove to California. He went to work for the Hughes Aircraft Company in Culver City and they rented an apartment in Westchester.
While seeking answers to technical questions about traveling-wave tubes, he met Dean Watkins, born 1922, who became both mentor and friend, but moved on to the Stanford faculty. Johnson received honorable mention in the Eta Kappa Nu outstanding young electrical engineer competition in 1955, and was promoted to manager of the microwave tube department at Hughes.
The paths of Watkins and Johnson crossed again in August 1957, when Johnson attended a conference at Stanford and the two met for lunch. During the meal, Watkins introduced the idea of starting a company together to develop and manufacture traveling-wave tubes. Johnson expressed interest, but voiced the concern that they would need about $1 million of initial capital. Little more was said. One evening in October, Johnson's phone rang. "I've got the million dollars,", announced Watkins, and Watkins-Johnson Company was incorporated on Dec. 6, 1957, with Watkins as President and Johnson as Vice President. On Dec. 31, 1987, when Johnson stepped down after 10 years as President and Chief Executive Officer to Vice Chairman of the Board, W-Jhad about 3,100 employees and annual sales of $264 million and profit of $17 million. W-J was still manufacturing traveling-wave tubes, but its product lines had expanded to about 40, including gallium arsenide microwave chips, hybrid microwave circuits, subsystems, complicated receiving systems for intelligence signals collection, automatic test equipment, spacecraft transmitting power amplifiers (including Vikings to Mars, Pioneer 10 to Jupiter and beyond the solar system, Voyagers I and II, and Galileo), and atmospheric- pressure chemical vapor deposition machines for coating silicon wafers with doped silicon dioxide and coating glass with a transparent conducting layer such as tin oxide for flat-panel display devices.
Johnson was a lecturer in electrical engineering at UCLA and at Stanford from 1958 to 1968. He served on panels of the National Security Agency Scientific Advisory Board from 1968 to 1978. He became a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers in 1962 and a member of the National Academy of Engineering in 1973. His interest in the Boy Scouts of America continued--he served the Stanford Area Council for ten years including three as president. He has been a board member of United Way, a hands-on museum called the Technology Center of Silicon Valley, and the Santa Clara County Manufacturing Group which consists of CEOs who are concerned about improving "Silicon Valley" housing, transportation, and education.
Johnson enjoyed tennis and skiing. At his Lake Tahoe vacation house, he cut firewood, shoveled snow, and sailed his boat. He made extensive use of his personal computer.
