With a little help, engineer, 65, strikes out on his own

By Ethan Forman
Staff writer

June 09, 2009 12:00 am

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DANVERS — After being “downsized” in January after two decades at Analogic Corp. in Peabody, engineer Richard Johnson decided retirement would not suit him.

Johnson, who had tackled such things as writing the control software for a CT scanner and a baggage scanning device at Analogic, has started Route 495 Software on 14 Electronics Ave. in Danvers. “I’m going to design software that runs the world,” Johnson said. “Software runs the world.” The former radio frequency engineer writes embedded software, which “is stuff that runs on machines that are not computers, but there are computers in them. It’s stuff that actually makes them run.”

Johnson, a 65-year-old Groveland resident who has written a self-published book about his reform-school childhood, says engineering is in his blood. “I have never backed off from a fight. I have never failed,” Johnson said. “I don’t believe in crying about things in the past or anything like that.”

Johnson picked the new company’s name not because he wanted to be near Lowell, but because he wanted to appeal to companies within the I-495 belt who would want quality software written locally.

Johnson has received a boost from Analogic’s famous retired founder, Bernie Gordon, now chairman of NeuroLogica, maker of a CT scan device small enough to be rolled on wheels.

Gordon gave Johnson a temporary office upstairs in the same building as NeuroLogica, a place where many former Analogic engineers work. “He’s providing office space, but we have all been mentored by Bernie over many years,” Johnson said.

Gordon, who has a passion for talking about what goes into making an engineering leader, said Johnson has unique abilities. “Dick can understand, because he started in life as an engineer, as a physical engineer, a circuit engineer and an equipment engineer,” he said. “He has an ability to understand the physical problem about which he is going to write the software.”

Johnson is eager to land his first customer, but there is interest in his company from one group. “I have 54 cover letters and resumes of people who want to come to work,” Johnson said.

Staff writer Ethan Forman can be reached at 978-338-2673 or by e-mail at eforman@salemnews.com.