Paul Johnson (center) with DTM instrument shop foreman Bill Steiner (left) overseeing progress on construction of DTM’s 30-meter radio telescope near La Plata, Argentina, in 1964, built and operated in collaboration with the Argentine Institute for Radioastronomy (IAR).

Paul A. Johnson, an electronics research specialist and shop foreman whose career at the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism spanned 32 years, died January 29, 2011, in Arizona.  He was 96.

A native of Jamestown, New York, Johnson worked in industry prior to coming to DTM as a temporary mechanic in early 1941.  His initial task was to help assemble DTM’s 225-ton cyclotron, an accelerator used to produce radioisotopes for biomedical research.  The job required expertise in multiple areas:  electrical work, machine work, sheet-metal work, plumbing, and welding.  Johnson distinguished himself and landed a job on the permanent staff within the year.

In 1953 he nearly single-handedly designed and constructed the steel mount for DTM’s first radio telescope, a 7.5-meter-diameter “Würzburg” radar antenna erected on the Department’s grounds in suburban Washington, D.C.  During the 1950s he participated in explosion seismology expeditions to the American West, Alaska, and South America, working with DTM scientists Merle Tuve, Howard Tatel, and Tom Aldrich.  He returned to radio astronomy in the ‘60s, collaborating with design engineer (and boyhood friend) Everett Ecklund on the construction of dishes as large as 30 meters in Maryland and Argentina.

In 1968 Johnson was appointed Shop Manager and Electronics Research Specialist – a position he held until his retirement in 1973.  At Johnson’s retirement celebration then-director Ellis Bolton praised him as “an endangered species fast disappearing from the American scene ... a generalist of the first magnitude.  I am daily astonished at his wisdom and his ability to do anything asked of him.”

Johnson visited the Department through his post-retirement years and kept in touch with former colleagues, especially Michael Seemann and the late Louis Brown.  He relocated to Sun City, Arizona, where he continued his lifelong pursuit of amateur radio.  When director Sean Solomon paid Johnson a visit there in 2001 he returned with a gift of a handcrafted, lapidary bolo tie, evidence of yet another of Johnson’s many talents.

Johnson’s love of DTM was reflected in the generous gift he left for the department.

(Researched and written by Shaun Hardy.)