Anyone who thinks only today’s generation has the market cornered in computer knowledge must have never met Bill Johnson. Bill built his entire career around learning about computers and applying the knowledge of their ever-changing technology.
“I loved being in on the ground floor of the digital computer age. When I attended Southeast Missouri State University, there was not a single digital computer available anywhere on campus. I had to order special study books to read about computers for special credit hours,” he says.
After four years in the U.S. Air Force during the Korean War, Bill started at Southeast in March 1955 and graduated in August 1957.
“Southeast was on the quarter system, and I went all four quarters each year, carrying an extra course load each quarter,” says Bill.
He graduated from Southeast in 1957 with bachelor’s degrees in mathematics and physics and a minor in chemistry.
After graduating, Bill worked for Chance Vought Aircraft in Grand Prairie, Texas until June 1959. While there, he found solutions to airframe differential equations using sophisticated analog computers. In June 1959, Bill joined the Research Laboratory at Texas Instruments, where his first assignment was assisting in the development of a digital computer to be used in the processing of digitally recorded seismic data as an aid in oil exploration.
Bill continued in computer science activities, especially programming, and spent most of his career involved in the development of computer software that helped assist engineers in the design of integrated circuits. In later years, he became more involved in management activities.
He also wrote several referenced technical papers and was recognized as a senior member of technical staff at Texas Instruments.
He retired in 1996 as a department manager in a software development and support activity.
Bill says that Southeast gave him an excellent basic grounding in math and physics. He also liked the smaller class sizes and the fact that Southeast had good teachers yet was a relatively inexpensive school.
Bill says it’s important to involve yourself in something you really want to do.
“Success involves working long and hard, but it is so much easier when you love what you do.”
Bill says his favorite memory of Southeast is the beauty of Academic Hall on a snowy day.
He also offered the following advice to current and future Southeast students.
“Few of us actually end up in life doing specifically what we studied in school. Be a generalist. Be interested in all things. College is really a time to broaden your understanding of the world.
“Southeast has grown by leaps and bounds since my days there. Growth is good, but I hope the special charm of low student-to-teacher ratios and closeness of community is not lost in the process. Once your college days are over, these are things that will remain with you long after you forget how to conjugate a verb.”
These days, Bill keeps himself busy with volunteer work, traveling, an active “honey-do list” and a little writing.
“I try to write stories from my life growing up in rural Missouri, fiction and poems.”
Bill is also very proud of his four children, nine grandchildren and first great-grandchild.
“Four of our grandchildren are already college graduates, and two are in college now.”
Bill currently lives in Garland, Texas, with his high school sweetheart and wife of more than 50 years, Marge.