Stephen C. Johnson

Stephen C. Johnson
07/30/2025
Stephen Craig Johnson of Redwood Shores, California, died suddenly of a rare lung infection on July 30, 2025 at Stanford Hospital, just four weeks shy of his 79th birthday. Steve considered himself a native Californian, despite growing up in a small town – Hubbard, Ohio – and having roots in Pennsylvania, where he also went to college.
From the age of 4 when, as legend would have it, he read a book every day, Steve was destined to excel in everything he pursued. An electrical engineer by degree and career, Steve was a true polymath. A lover of music, Steve was an accomplished violinist from the age of 8 and as an adult composed several pieces, one of which was a full symphony he recorded in his state-of-the-art home studio. He was a pilot, a sailor and yachtsman; a vegan chef; a world traveler; an avid hiker, coffee roaster and builder, and proudly served on the national board of the Coast Guard Auxiliary.
Steve co-founded Roeder-Johnson Corporation, a strategic communications firm serving high-tech companies, in 1989. For more than two decades, he provided a technical point of view and helped shape Roeder-Johnson's high concept approach to communications.
Earlier in his life, Steve was the founding president and CEO of Silicon Compilers Far East Company, responsible for the development of all Japanese and Asian operations for the parent company, Silicon Compilers, Inc. Prior to that, he served as vice president of engineering and product development for the parent company, where he led the 100-person engineering team that produced the world's first commercially successful silicon compiler.
As a younger man, Steve held a succession of executive and senior management positions at computer-aided design (CAD) pioneer Scientific Calculations, Inc. (now Harris Corporation) and chipmaker Signetics Corporation (later a subsidiary of N.V. Philips).
Steve held a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from Carnegie-Mellon University, and attained a Master of Business Administration degree at Santa Clara University. He published numerous articles in the U.S. and Japan, and held a U.S. patent in integrated circuits.
Steve is predeceased by his beloved wife, Abigail Johnson, and his parents Benjamin M. Johnson and Beverly Sims Johnson. He is survived by his sister, Beverly Ann Johnson of Savannah, Georgia, his sister Anita Johnson Thorp (Gary) of St. Simons Island, Georgia, his nephews, Chandler Clemens and Cole Clemens of New York City and his sister-in-law, Penelope Roeder of Playa del Rey, California. A private family service will be held in his favorite hiking park.