Clarence Johnson:
CLASS OF 1977
Seabreeze High SchoolClass of 1977
Daytona beach, FL
Clarence's Story
It's been a wild 30+ years since high school. I work for Raytheon, an aerospace company, live in Colorado with my wife and youngest daughter. My oldest lives in West Virginia and just graduated from college with a degree in Social Services. My middle daughter graduated from HS this past year and just moved into an apartment. She's a challenge. My youngest is in 6th grade this year.
So I've 3 daughters and they are 26, 18, and 11. I was married the first time for 13 years, and am now married a second time, 11+ years and counting this time. I think I'd like to keep counting and see how far it can go this time. Divorce sucks!
We are very active in the EC Riders motorcycle club. We just finished up our toys for tots drive in conjunction with the Marine Reserves, we raised over $5,000 and filled up the back of one of the Marines 5 ton trucks over 3 feet deep with toys.
I bought a Harley ElectraGlide UltraClassic in 2006. My wife Christine and I rode my bike from Denver to Salt Lake city in June. I also rode from Denver to St. Louis in July. I think we've put about 11,000 miles on it so far this year. I did a 3 day trip around Colorado this summer with the club as well. I had a bike while I was in the Army for awhile and that little one I had when I was a Freshman, back before I got my yellow 73 Chevy Nova SS that I was so proud of in High School.
Lets see, after graduation from Seabreeze in 77 my folks retired to WV. David Wetmore and I got an apartment somewhere in Daytona, don't even remember where anymore. I worked for Publix, as I had all through high school. It was nothing but a big party, maybe a bit to much. Anyway, I ended up joining by parents in WV in mid 78, worked in a ford tractor dealership for awhile and for a company that started coal mines.
Then I guess I needed some...Expand for more
thing else, so in Dec of 1980 I went in the Army and became a cryptographic technician. Did boot camp at Ft Jackson SC, school at Ft Gordon GA. Then I spent a year + at Ft Hood TX, a year in Sinop Turkey (that's a whole other story), and finally a year a Ft Detrick MD. When I got out in 1984 I went to work for a company called E-Systems in Northern Virginia. Raytheon bought E-Systems in 1997 and I transferred to Colorado in 2004.
I've had several great positions with Raytheon, started out as a technical controller doing shift work, on to supervisor, manager, program manger, program area manager, and am currently the Manager for Business Development and Strategy for the Mission Operations and Services business unit here in Colorado. I have mainly dealt with the Intelligence Community customers in the engineering and operations of very large data networks, but since transferring to Colorado I've also been involved in satellite ground systems (command and control and mission planning).
Almost forgot, I left E-Systems in 1996 for about a year and a half to work for a .com called UUNET Technologies. I managed the network operations center there. That too is another story. Suffice it to say that it was a great experience but my definition of a crisis didn't match theirs, so I took my old boss back up on an offer and went back to E-Systems just as Raytheon bought us. UUNET went on to become Worldcom and was famous for CEO Bernie Ebers running them into the ground and going to jail. I think I left just in time.
Anyway, it's been a busy life, made some good friends along the way. I think I'm beginning to move away from a focus on work and back to family, friends, and learning that it's just important to have fun again.
So there's a quick summary of my last 30+ years. What have you been doing?
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