370 – Rady Johnson of Westport, CT, Retired Senior Exec. at Pfizer, Father Of 3 Including One With Intellectual Disabilities

Transcript:

Tom Couch: Special thanks to Amgen for sponsoring the Special Fathers Network Dad to Dad Podcast. Committed to unlocking the potential of biology for patients suffering from serious illnesses by discovering, developing, manufacturing and delivering innovative human therapeutics. Discover more about Amgen’s mission at Amgen.com.

Rady Johnson: Having a family member with a disability opened up a whole world that you didn’t know existed and you might not ever know existed. And so just having that world there, you know, and not just Michael, but everything else that came with it, turns out to have been just a real wonderful part of our lives.

Tom Couch: That’s our guest this week, Rady Johnson, a retired executive from Pfizer and a father of three, including Michael, 34, who has intellectual disabilities and was adopted from Romania. We’ll hear the story of that adoption and more on this Special Fathers Network Dad to Dad Podcast. Now say hello to the founder of the Special Fathers Network and host of the Dad to Dad Podcast, David Hirsch.

David Hirsch: Hi, I’m David Hirsch, host of the Special Fathers Network Dad to Dad Podcast. Two short messages. First, I’d like to invite you to attend the 6th Annual SFN Dads Virtual Conference taking place via Zoom on Saturday, May 10th at 8:00am Central Time. We have a great roster of speakers and there will be plenty of time for breakouts to meet like-minded dads who are committed to their children and self improvement. Secondly, the Special Fathers Network Mastermind Group Experience is the most comprehensive program the 21st Century Dads foundation offers Dads raising children with special needs, meet virtually on a weekly basis and form meaningful relationships while sharing weekly wins, discussing books and sharing heartfelt challenges. One of the highlights of the year is attending an in person weekend retreat scheduled this year from September 5th to the 7th. As you think about the year ahead, I invite you to join one of the existing or soon to be formed SFN Mastermind Groups and join a group of like-minded dads to become the best version of yourself. It might just transform your life like it’s done for so many others. For more information please go to the Show Notes or simply go to 21stCenturyDads.org.

Tom Couch: Now let’s listen in to this conversation between Rady Johnson and David Hirsch.

David Hirsch: I’m thrilled to be talking today with Rady Johnson of Westport, Connecticut who is the father of three and who recently retired from Pfizer as the Chief Compliance, Quality and Risk Officer after a 30 plus year career at the giant pharmaceutical. Rady, thank you for taking the time to do a podcast interview for the Special Fathers Network.

Rady Johnson: Thanks David. It’s really great to get to know you and appreciate frankly the amazing body of work that the Special Fathers Network has evolved into all these years. It’s great to be part of it. Thank you for the invitation.

David Hirsch: You’re welcome. You and your wife Diane have been married for 38 years and are the proud parents of three children, Katherine, 36, Bridget, 30, and Michael, 34, who was adopted from Romania at AH, age 1 and who has intellectual disabilities. Let’s start with some background. Where did you grow up? Tell me something about your family.

Rady Johnson: Sure. I was born in Lincoln, Nebraska and we come from a long line of Nebraskans by way of Sweden. But we moved from Nebraska to the D.C. area when I was about 9 or 10 years old and spent the rest of my life kind of working and being raised there until I ultimately moved to Connecticut as part of my job with Pfizer. So kind of grew up in the, between Richmond and D.C. kind of that belt for many, many years.

David Hirsch: Got it. Out of curiosity, what did your dad do for a living?

Rady Johnson: My dad was a lawyer, went to University of Nebraska undergrad and ultimately became a lawyer and started off being a local, ah, prosecutor and then got into politics a little bit. His father was the Attorney General of Nebraska and big into politics and so that motivated my dad and he started working with a congressman, Dave Martin was his name, of Nebraska way back when. And that’s ultimately how family came to D.C. my dad was working in the state locally for several years and then had the opportunity to come to D.C. with Dave and never went back.

David Hirsch: So is there a long line of lawyers then? Because your dad was a lawyer, you were a lawyer. Was your grandfather a lawyer as well?

Rady Johnson: My grandfather’s a lawyer as well too, yeah. He went into politics pretty early. To be honest, I can’t remember if he had a particular practice that he focused on, but I know he was a lawyer. But all I remember him as his, he was an Attorney General of Nebraska, was elected for four terms actually he was a state representative before that. Because every time we drive through the state and friends of ours, whoever drive through the state, by the way, everyone drives through the state, they don’t stay in the state. But anytime people drive through the state and happen to go through Lincoln, they’ll visit the state house and they’ll always send me a little picture they took in front of the class photo of my grandfather as

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Rady Johnson: in the state representative picture, almost looks like a fraternity composite. So he did that for a bunch of terms before he became Attorney General for four terms. I’ve got these great photos that are on our wall of his campaign posters at the time where I could see my dad and his siblings kind of age as each campaign came and went.

David Hirsch: Yeah, thanks for sharing. So I’m sort of curious to know, how would you describe your relationship with your dad?

Rady Johnson: Terrific. Yeah. I have an unusual name. Rady. It’s a family name. And my dad was, I was Rady II He was Rady I. People always ask where that name came from, by the way. And legend has it that my grandfather, who I was just talking about, his name was Walter, Johnson. He’s a pilot in World War I. And somebody in his squadron had the last name of Rady, so he decided to give that name to my father. So that always kind of united my dad and I. If nothing else, that always united us because we spent all our lives kind of repronouncing and spelling our names for people. But, my relationship was great as the oldest of five kids. So I had the benefit of, you know, being the doted favorite son for a number of years before the others kind of came along and crowded the party. you know, I always admired my dad. I always admired, his and my mom’s relationship, but it was always there, always had plenty of time for me and all five of us. And he was more of an introverted. He was the introverted part of the couple between him and my mom. But boy, he was fantastic. One on one, he could just talk about anything for as long as you wanted. Great relationship. Yeah, he passed just before the pandemic. And so we miss him greatly.

David Hirsch: Yeah, well, sorry to hear that he passed, but it sounds like he was a great role model. You had a good relationship. You did emphasize that he was present. Right. Which is really important.

Rady Johnson: 100%. 100%.

David Hirsch: So, any important takeaways, lessons learned that you’ve tried to incorporate into your own fathering as a result of reflecting on your dad and your relationship with him?

Rady Johnson: I think as I’ve gotten older, I’ve figured him out better, you know, what kind of a person he was and what made him tick. And, you know, a lot of it’s invasion of privacy because after he passed, we found all the love. Love letters he and my mom wrote to each other over the years. And he turns out to be the. The man that I had thought he was. He would never talk about himself. I mean, he was a very modest, humble person. Very much kind of just lived by doing after he passed. Probably up until as recently as a few months ago, because my name is the same, people had tracked me down who were part of my father’s life somewhere along the way that I’d never heard of. And they all had something about my father they wanted to share with me. And so I had lots of phone conversations, lots of Starbucks meetings with a few folks who happened to be, you know, if we were able to connect in the same town, whatever, and. And to a person. They all had a story about what he did for them, you know, that none of us ever knew. I don’t know, my mom may have known, but none of us kids certainly ever known, knew one was more impressive than the other. And lots of simple things. Lots of. It’s like connections for a job, lots of people helping people they got lost, a job, family situations he would get involved in. But he was just. It was clear that he was just always there for whoever needed him to be there. And never said no, but he just never would tell you, but you would have no idea. He did this stuff. And we found out a lot of this stuff after the fact. I learned more about that his last couple years. He had had a stroke and he was pretty healthy all along. But something changed. He was talking more the last year or two we were together, so that was kind of the spark. And I remember I’d call my brother or sister and be like, did you know dad did this or that or whatever. And we were all shocked. So long winded way of just saying he was just a phenomenal, selfless, a man who was always there for everybody. One last little thing. The five of us, we became a skiing family at some point along the way. I think the first time I skied, I was 14 in high school. And that would be our annual vacation. It was great. And we always had amazing memories of those vacations. Then 100 years later, I’m taking my own family of three skiing. One time. I remember we drove to wherever we were skiing and everyone parked the car and everybody disappeared. And then I find myself, like, stumbling through the parking lot carrying five sets of skis. My wife’s, mine, three kids, because we hadn’t taught them how to carry their own stuff. And then I paused and I just remember thinking, holy crap. I remember just having a moment like what an amazing guy my dad was, because none of us ever carried our skis either. So he must have been the guy bearing seven sets of skis wherever we went. And, you know, he didn’t complain. And somehow everything just kind of always kind of happened, but it’s a silly story, but it’s a little thing where I just kind of remember all that he did. But just the simple little things matter. They really do. And he was there all the time. They did them, whether we knew it or not.

David Hirsch: Yeah, I love it. Thanks for sharing. What I think I heard you say is that, actions speak louder than words. He might not have been talking about what he was doing, but, maybe with the benefit of hindsight or later in life, if he started talking a little bit more, you had a better understanding

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David Hirsch: about, who he was. it reminds me when I eulogized my grandfather, who was my father figure growing up. He died at age 93. So I knew him not just as a little guy, but, you know, as a young adult.

Rady Johnson: Oh, very nice.

David Hirsch: And, there was a quote that I had read, and I won’t get it 100%, but I’ll get most of it by Ralph Waldo Emerson, which simply is that your actions speak so loud I can’t hear what you’re saying.

Rady Johnson: Yes, I’ve heard that. Yeah. That’s fantastic, isn’t it?

David Hirsch: So your dad comes to mind.

Rady Johnson: Yeah, it’s as simple as that, isn’t it? And, I mean, if you can stop long enough to kind of remember something like that as we go through our own journeys, it kind of boils down to something like that and we all fall off the rails a little bit. But something like that brings you back to what the focus ought to be. I, ah, will say, when my wife and I met and started dating, all of her grandparents were still alive. And they all lived until their late 80s and early 90s. So I had the benefit of, I realized, as close as I was to my grandfather Walter at my dad’s side, he, too passed when I was probably 12. So I did not know him as an adult. But I did get to know and reconnect with all of my wife Diane’s four grandparents. And the grandfathers, Cliff and Emil, were just amazing people. So just, it was kind of great as an adult having that generation to reconnect with. So they were big influences for me.

David Hirsch: Yeah, thanks for sharing. So, my recollection was you went to University of Richmond, undergrad, and then you went to Georgetown Law School. And I’m wondering, where was it that your career took you from there?

Rady Johnson: I was an accountant before I went to law school. Coming out of law school, I was lucky enough just to stumble in some, you know, the practice of food, and drug law, regulatory law. I did not go to law school to become a food and drug lawyer. But somehow along the lines, kind of stumbled into it, had a couple of great mentors, took me under their wing and just kind of launched into private practice after graduation with a law firm in D.C. for a number of years and very much enjoyed it. I was an accounting major in large part coming out of the University of Richmond, for two reasons. One, my dad said I had to be able to get a job. Whatever it was, I did. And I quickly came to realize accountants got jobs. But, being an accounting major also got me out of my science requirement at the time. So it was kind of ironic just all these years later to then become a food and drug lawyer and spend most of my career with some of the world’s most amazing science scientists and see what they did. And, all these people who did pass organic chemistry made me realize I should have gone, maybe I shouldn’t have run away from my science requirements so quickly. But, doing that, in D.C. is kind of how I found, my job at Pfizer. I was ultimately recruited by Pfizer to go in house as a food and drug regulatory lawyer with them. And then like any big multinational corporation, once you get your foot in the door and if you enjoy what you’re doing and had just a really rich, very enjoyable, very fun career that, as you mentioned at the outset, I’ve just left days ago, so after 31 years. So. And that also is what took us kind of north to Connecticut, and New England and all that stuff in New York City.

David Hirsch: Well, congratulations on a race well run career wise, at least the first leg of your career. I’m very curious to see where the next leg of your career, formally or informally, will take you.

Rady Johnson: Me too.

David Hirsch: So I’m sort of curious to know. How did you and Diane meet?

Rady Johnson: That was the best thing about being an accounting major. We both used to work at Arthur Anderson coming out of school. She went to, James Madison University. We both met in the Washington D.C. office of Arthur Anderson. Just a big gang of people coming out of school and got to know each other and we clicked pretty quickly.

David Hirsch: Well, I used to know Arthur Anderson well in my community here in Chicago, where Arthur Anderson was headquartered. Arthur Anderson III used to live in the same little sleepy town that I lived in. we would take the train in. Not like we were close friends, but, I remember once sitting in a seat, that I didn’t often sit in. And he Came up to me and said, excuse me. I said, hi, good morning, or whatever. I said. He goes, you’re in my seat. I thought for sure he was joking with me, right? And he was dead serious. Apparently he sat in the same seat every day for, like, decades. And I happened to be sitting in his seat, and I got up and moved. Right. That was the nature of the conversation. Let’s talk about special needs, mostly on a personal level. I’m sort of curious now. Prior to adopting Michael and the, subsequent diagnosis, did you or Diane have any connection to the world of disability or special needs?

Rady Johnson: My best friend in growing up, and we were best men in each other’s weddings. Still very, very, very close. Had a brother, his older brother had a disability, you know, something I. But didn’t. We never talked about it, you know, never really knew what it was. And so that was. As a young, immature child, that was probably my first for some reason

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Rady Johnson: that that’s something I always remember. But. But no, not really. No other. No family member? No close neighbor? No. No real experience, to be honest. Yeah.

David Hirsch: Okay. So, what is Michael’s diagnosis? Or what are the symptoms if it’s not a formal diagnosis? And how did it come about?

Rady Johnson: So Michael’s severely intellectually disabled. He’s 34 years old now, but we adopted him just before he was one, and, we didn’t know. We adopted him in Romania. Went there. One of the greatest adventures of our lives. And first time both of us had ever left the country, actually, to get passports for this trip. And it was fascinating one because we were on a journey to adopt a child, and there had been all sorts of stories about Romania and what had happened there. Shortly after, kind of the wall fell, then Dictator was executed and whatnot. So it was fascinating from just a historical perspective because I’ve always been a big student in that kind of stuff. So it’s amazing to see a kind, of East Bloc, kind of country so fresh. After that all kind of happened. So it was really amazing. But then the journey just to find him that led us to Michael was one of the most amazing, adventures as well. So we knew, we had an older daughter at the time and seeking to adopt. The only condition we put on it was that we didn’t want to displace her as the oldest child. We just didn’t think that was fair. So she was two or three. And so that kind of gave us the thing with Michael. We knew the second we saw Michael, he was in trouble. We didn’t have any idea what it was. He was born prematurely. We think there may have been some fetal alcohol syndrome. He had been abandoned in a hospital that didn’t have running water. He was very malnourished and just had all sorts of stuff going on. So it was just an adventure to get him safely back to the States, where he then spent three weeks in the hospital. The minute we got back in the States and got some good medical care, and he had meningitis and CMB and he had a whole host of things. We didn’t know if that was just because he had no treatment and was sick and had to get better or if there was something more permanent involved. But we suspect it could be any or all the above. And you start to discover things. He wasn’t doing anything on the same timeframe that his sister Katherine did. He was always behind. He was always this. He didn’t sleep. He had a million earaches. He couldn’t touch. If he touched grass, it was like walking on glass. He had sensory deprivation stuff. And I still remember, in some, of the long nights when he wouldn’t sleep, I would just walk, you know, and you couldn’t. You couldn’t cuddle him. You couldn’t. He didn’t want to be held because he didn’t want to be touched. He said it just felt like, you know, needles piercing his body. So that led to just start finding therapists and people who knew more than we knew. And one thing led to another. And this discovery started in Virginia, and we were living down there and then continued into Connecticut. And we moved up because Michael was probably maybe three or four when we moved up here. but over the time we found out, the good news is he needed just tons of physical therapy and all sorts of motor kinds of activity just to kind of overcome this sensory integration disorder that he had. And he largely did. And so now you can hug the heck out of him. So it’s. And he runs like crazy on grass and everything else, so he’s tough as nails when it comes to that. What was left was just a, severe intellectual deficit. He always had low iq. And so then you kind of. When you start plotting through the school system, you very quickly realize what he can do and what he can’t do. And that led to a whole separate journey. So that was kind of the beginning. So, yeah, we weren’t shocked that he had some kind of disability. We just didn’t know what it was going to be and how we would respond to it.

David Hirsch: Was there any advice you got early on that helped, put the, the challenges into perspective?

Rady Johnson: We remember getting advice from a lot of people like, why are you going to Romania? Don’t do that in the first place. No, it wasn’t, you know, I think it was a time when, I need to go back and look at the timing. You know, I think there’s, you know, our generation, David. You know, I think part of the reason we didn’t know a lot of people with disabilities way back when growing up is because no one did. They weren’t on the scene, you know. And, probably the timeline of when Michael took us into this world was probably about the time that the world was starting to of just wake up a little bit and realize there’s a better way. And the field was building at the time, so there were a lot of paraprofessionals and people supporting the IEPs that we did at the schools and the different counselors. And so the good news was there were places to go, but it seems like we were all learning together as we went, if that makes any sense.

David Hirsch: Absolutely. The world has changed a lot in the last 30 years, Michael’s lifespan. And, I’d like to think we’re in a better place. Right. That’s more inclusive and accepting of people with differences. but that doesn’t mean that, you know, hey, there isn’t room for improvement or, opportunities for further growth.

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David Hirsch: Sort of looking back, were there any important decisions that you can say, I’m glad we did this or glad we did that?

Rady Johnson: He had a great team and great support people. You know, the best thing about Michael is, everybody wants to be on his team. He’s a real gregarious guy with an amazing laugh. And boy, he, to this day is no, shortage of fans. But at one point realized, all right, we just need to go, take him out and go somewhere. So he left the public school system for three years and went to a terrific school called the Foundation School in Orange, Connecticut. And a great experience. So it kind of helped him stabilize in certain respects and get some, some basics down. But then we kind of realized that’s not the world for him either. And we then went back to the public schools and. And that was the best thing we ever did. And for a whole lot of things I can get into, but I like roller coasters. Diane does not. And I think the whole journey is there’s ups and downs to the whole thing, and there’s probably. We’ve had maybe a few less than good days that we would like to undo, but, you know, we’re just kind of figuring out as we went. I think, you know, when we. We see where we got, we think, well, maybe we. Maybe it worked out okay. We are where we are. The thing we definitely learned, though, is check your own expectations at the door. I think you’re very quick to kind of. Maybe it’s because you’re. Your benchmark is your other children or your other kids and that kind of stuff, whatever it is. And so we did, time and time again, almost set our own ceiling for what we thought Michael could achieve. And so therefore, whatever we were looking for was just to get him to this point or to that point. And that was a mistake, because you don’t know what they can achieve. And whatever you need to do, you gotta leave it open. Because every time we came close to putting a ceiling on him, he burst through it big time. And much to our surprise, and then some. And he does that to this day. So you’ve just got to go into it with some faith and hope and it’ll be what it will be. But don’t constrain yourself and put yourself or him, in a box prematurely because you’ll be proven wrong. We learned that time and time again. I think that was more of a protective sense. We didn’t want him to be hurt, us to be hurt. I don’t know. We were trying to protect him maybe. And I think sometimes you protect too much. You just don’t let them go be themselves. And don’t worry about if he’s going to embarrass himself or you or what anybody else thinks, because it just doesn’t matter.

David Hirsch: Yeah, well spoken. the way I phrase it is that, it’s easy to talk about, but it’s very difficult to implement not to care about what people say, think, or do because we just live in a very judgmental world.

Rady Johnson: We do.

David Hirsch: And as it relates to, what somebody is capable of, like you said, God only knows. I think it’s very common that this doesn’t have anything to do with disability. It has more to do with just parenting. You know, you don’t want your kids to get hurt, right? You don’t want them to fail. You don’t want them to fall. So by doing things for them or protecting them when taken too far, right, you’re further handicapping them, right? Because they’re not able to make their own decisions and do things for themselves. And, I think, you know, you can only really connect the dots looking backwards. It’s really difficult to connect the dots, looking forward and understand that. So you just have to sort of like, catch yourself from doing things for your kids that they might be able to be capable of doing for themselves, even if they don’t do it successfully the first time or first 10 times. So anyway, thank you for sharing.

Rady Johnson: Or don’t do it the way you would do it.

David Hirsch: Absolutely fine.

Rady Johnson: They’ll get it done. That actually applies to all your children. but it was definitely something that was very cute and in Michael’s situation.

David Hirsch: Yeah. Lessons learned, right?

Rady Johnson: Yeah.

David Hirsch: Speaking of which, I’m sort of wondering what impact, Michael’s situations had on his older and younger sister, your marriage and your extended family for that matter.

Rady Johnson: You know, I think, in no particular order in terms of our marriage, definitely made our marriage as strong as it ever. It was always strong. And because I think my wife, you know, we both were into it, we brought different tools and skills and, you know, we’re all on team Michael, but we were, we each had different positions to play. And so, But boy, but it was great and we just, we loved it. We thrived in the universe. And the. Having a family member with a disability opened up a whole world that you didn’t know existed and you might not ever know existed. And so just having that world there, you know, and not just Michael, but everything else that came with it turns out to have been just a real wonderful part of our lives. So to that extent, and it was something Diane and I do together a lot. So that part’s huge. In terms of the girls, Our oldest, Katherine, is just an amazing human being. And I think she was there from the beginning. She knew we were going to Romania. She knew we were coming back from Romania. She got to be part of the team. She viewed herself, even at a young age, of having a big sister role. And she’s there to figure it out with us. And she’s very compassionate and tender. and it’s just always been amazing for him. And they have a very unique, a special relationship. His younger sister Bridget, and, and I’ll get to the

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Rady Johnson: end in case she hears this podcast herself one day. It was a different relationship. I mean, she came along, she’s a third child. She’s like, who is this guy? Why, why does he get all the attention? And there was a seven year age gap between she and Katherine. So, you know, back then. So I think Bridget bore the brunt of, being. We kind of joke with Bridget, you know, no one ever, ever actually heard her say a Word till she was like four if you will. And she was a good kid and just kind of got dragged along with whatever the family was being dragged into. And she’s now 30 and engaged to be married and just the most amazing person herself. And she’s come. So I think she had a little face like who is this guy? And there’s like competition and they kind of. He poked her, she poked him. It was just a different thing. It wasn’t good or bad and it wasn’t unusual. I think it’s just different than what Katherine and Michael had with the older sister. Sister. But she’s woken up and is his biggest advocate now. And it’s amazing to see what that relationship has turned into. If anything, they probably had more of a traditional, sibling relationship. Young kids who just pick on each other and always screaming and yelling and pulling each other’s hair. So I think now that I’m rambling through this answer, I think I realized what they have is just more of a typical thing. And ah, what Katherine and Michael had was more the outlier because she was mature behind our years.

David Hirsch: Yeah. Well, thanks for sharing. I’m sort of curious to know what supporting organizations Michael or your family have benefited from.

Rady Johnson: Yeah, we have large extended family. I’m one of five and Diane’s one of four. And lots of kids and cousins and aunts and uncles and all that kind of stuff, all over the country. And they’re all on Team Michael too. It’s amazing. And I think for them having a family member with a disability and being part of the ride, opened up all of their lives in a lot of different ways that might not have otherwise happened but, but they too are just the most giving rah rah people. So it’s been a great experience for all of us in terms of organizations. Michael for years has been a member of a great organization that he joined right out of, I guess when he finished high school. He kind of went through the 12th grade and then he had a two year transition program. And like a lot of our experiences, wow, what happens after they get to be 21 or 18 or whatever? Where do you go from there? So our vision is the name of a group that was formed many, many years earlier that does a bunch of things including Special Olympics. There, are Special Olympics team together and Michael kind of tapped into that and has been part of that for the last 10 years. Very big part. Diane is kind of the current president of the chapter there. And so it’s kind of an independent Organization. It’s also our Special Olympics, entree. And we participate every year in Special Olympics with that whole team. So that’s been a big part of their kind of community and family. Best buddies was very important for many, many years. early in the early days, he had a lot of great buddies. The two other big organizations I’d list, though, frankly, was just St. Luke’s Youth Group, our Catholic church that we all were members of Forever and a Day. And ah, we were all very active in the youth group and the activities there. So Michael was very, very involved with that. And, and that gave him just a great community social outlet with typical kids, but, I mean, in all ages, but it was that. And then I would say, pal, the Police Athletic League of Westport, Connecticut. When Michael came back from the. Well, actually when he went to that private school that we pulled him out of high school for, we were concerned that he would then just lose touch with the community. And, so we enrolled him in football, of all things. And Michael’s not going to blow over in a breeze. He’s not going to get hurt. So we weren’t too concerned about him being on a football field and getting tossed around a little bit. But it was just a fun thing that all the kids were doing. And I want to say sixth grade, maybe sixth. And, boy, did the coaches and the organization and his teammates and the parents of the teammates, did they just adopt Michael. And they, you know, he just was. And that just became a big part of his identity for a long time. So much so that when he came back into the Westport school system in seventh grade, I guess he played through. He kind of was on the team till eighth grade. And, we thought, what a great ride. but next year’s high school and our high school football program happens to be pretty serious. And we said, it’s over. You know, you can’t. That’s a whole different thing. We got a. Darned if we didn’t get, up. The word got around and we got a phone call from Mars Patricio, who was the high school varsity coach at the time, who we knew but didn’t really know. And Diane, answered the phone and he’s like, Diane Marsh, what’s this I hear about Michael not playing football next year at Staples High School? If he’s not playing, I’m not coaching. And so it’s kind of one of those kinds of things. And, that was just, I’m about to get choked up here because there’s so many Stories around that, that, you know, the community just stood up for Michael. And here we were, parents scared to death about throwing our disabled son back into the high school system. Because high school is brutal for any kid these days, to be honest with you.

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Rady Johnson: And he thrived through high school and a big part of it was everything but this football team that just got behind him. He played all the way through his senior year. I mean, he was on the team and just so many stories. And so that, that was just an organ, a community organization that to this day people talk about and, and so many things that benefited him and, and it created for him. You know, he just got so many allies. So now as he’s a 34 year old, almost a 34 year old young man living and working in our community, living independently as of a year ago. You know, he’s got, he’s got guardian angels all over town that know Michael. And a lot of it came back from those days. So that my, I don’t know if that was the, one of the organizations you might have expected me to mention, but that just really for. It was more than a football team and it’s more than a high school football team. It’s just a, it’s just the way it worked out was amazing.

David Hirsch: Yeah. Well, the image that I had in my mind is sort of like the image of Rudy, Notre Dame, you know, football player, you know, who just, you know, wanted to be part of the team. I know the circumstances are different, but, you know, like the underdog. Right. And people were there to support the underdog. And it seems like it wasn’t just like through high school, like you were saying, but it’s been like that was the foundation that was laid. Right. Those high school years, where the foundation was laid for Michael to become more independent like you just made reference to. And did you mention in a prior conversation that he actually has different jobs as well?

Rady Johnson: Yes, he’s been very lucky. He’s had gainful employment for 14, 15 years. He’s got three kind of core jobs. Our community lives is on Long Island Sound, so we have beaches in the town. And so he works for the Parks and Rec department in the summer. He’s, I think if he was here, he’d be the first to tell you. He’s got like year 17 coming up, I think, and he’s on the maintenance crew, you know, drives around the golf carts and picks up the trash all summer long. So he sees the whole town in the course of that job in the season. And to this day, he’s. What they all say is they’ve never seen anybody work harder than Michael Johnson. And he’s. He’s so serious and he loves it. He’s outdoors. It’s very social for him. He bumps into people all the time. He’s got another job with Talc Tours, which is, they just celebrated their 100th anniversary. It’s a travel agency, fifth generation family business based in Westport. Really terrific organization with very special people. And he’s got a year round, kind of, five day a week, five to six hours a day job with them every year. And again, he just. Wherever he goes, his bosses, his colleagues, they just, they’re there. They. He’s infectious and he works really hard. So he’s. He does that. He works at Marshall’s department store, holiday shifts and that kind of stuff. So work is a big part of Michael’s life. he’s very responsible about his schedule, about knowing what time he’s supposed to be there. very organized, far more than Diane and I. He’s got a great track record in all three fronts over the years, and it’s always made. That’s why I’ve always kind of focused on kind of the employment gap that exists between people with a disability and people without a disability. And, you know, for all of us, we’re all trying to, you know, build our lives out and having a meaningful job is just for all of us, a big piece of that.

David Hirsch: Yeah, well, from your lips to God’s ears. I’m hoping that others, would have the same experience that, Michael has as far as opportunities for employment, because that seems to be one of the big missing pieces to the puzzle is that you fall off the cliff at age 22 in most situations, and now what?

Rady Johnson: Yep.

David Hirsch: So the fact that he’s able to stay engaged and gainfully employed, not just like doing piecework or something like that, is really powerful. And, my wife and I have become cruisers over the last, five or six years. Egypt, India, Vietnam, different places. And Tuck, is a, name that’s very, very well respected in the, cruise industry. And I’m wondering, just selfishly, if because of Michael’s employment that you and Diane or your family get discounts on the tours.

Rady Johnson: Well, Michael gets a discount and we’ve never taken advantage of. We talk about it a lot and, so we need to do it. But he gets a nice discount actually. And we just have never done it. But we will.

David Hirsch: Well, we’ll have to have a separate conversation about that. But, hey, you’re gonna have a little bit more time on your hands now that you’re retired, so no excuses.

Rady Johnson: Yeah.

Tom Couch: We’ll be back with more of the conversation on the Special Fathers Network Dad to Dad Podcast in just a few moments. But first, this quick message. Please help 21st Century Dads gather research on families raising children with special needs by having them complete the Spirit Special Fathers Network Early Intervention Parents Survey. A link to the survey can be found in the show notes. As a token of our appreciation, each person, mom or dad, who completes the survey will receive a great dad coin. Thank you. Now,

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back to the conversation.

David Hirsch: We talked a little bit about this prior to our conversation today and in a past conversation about, Pfizer and the many things that Pfizer does, internally. And one of them that caught my attention is this colleagues, resource group, a number of different ones, and you had led or, were actively involved, with the disability group, and I’m wondering if you could shed a little light on that as well.

Rady Johnson: Sure. Happy to. It’s been one of the more enriching things I did at Pfizer over the years. First of all, the company’s. It’s a wonderful place to work for a lot of reasons, including the fact that the commitment they have to kind of the diversity resource groups across the spectrum, if you will. And then a few years ago, I had the opportunity to kind of lead the. Be the executive sponsor for the Disability Colleague Resource Group and to jump to the end of the story. we’ve had a lot of support, you know, from my boss and from the whole company. Well, one thing, you know, it’s not just understanding disability and being more inclusive, and it’s, all about disability inclusion. But let’s, let’s be tangible about this. Let’s do two things. Let’s, let’s take a little bit of a bite out of that employment gap that exists and see if we just, you know, we’re a big company with a lot of big footprint around the globe. Can we just create a few more opportunities for people to come to work that have disabilities? And so we’ve been focused on that and doing that in, different ways to good m. Success. We have a long way to go. We can do more, but we’re really proud of what we’ve done the last several years. The other thing is, are you even aware of the people who are already there who probably may well have a disability? And are you doing enough for them? So that they feel fully included and have the chance to. So it’s been kind of the two pronged focus, bringing more people in and then together making them just truly feel like they’ve got support. They need to be as successful as they can in their career like any of the rest of us. The easy thing was to get people kind of jazzed about wanting to do all that. It was not a hard sell at all. There’s no politics involved. We’ve obviously as a country and a nation been through a lot the last couple years and are going through a lot of. Everybody can relate to this. And so it’s not divisive to want to get involved in this kind of thing. But it’s really hard to do anything about is the answer is difficult because disability is a big huge umbrella and there’s lots of shapes and sizes underneath it. So it’s kind of hard to scale a big program. It’s not like just go do that big HR program and then you can do that for thousand people. There’s a lot of individualized kind of hands on kind of stuff that you need depending what the situation is. So we kind of focused on as we kind of matured, we realized there’s like a three legged stool that you got to get working. Number one is the colleague itself, that person, you know, who’s got the disability. Are we aware of them? How do they feel? Do they feel courageous kind of speaking up? And then their managers, they’re the ones who can have an honest conversation. Wow. Who knew that if you only had X, Y and Z that your job would be that much easier to do? I had no idea. And a lot of people with a disability didn’t have the trust and confidence to speak up so they would hide their disability. And so we kind of broke those that, that fear, down a lot over the last couple years. So we’ve come a long way of making sure managers and colleagues have a conversation. And it’s like simply have you had the conversation? You know, and then what comes of it? You know, what are the things the manager that you guys can just do. Do it. Good, go ahead. You don’t need to run it up the flagpole is doing that. Make that adjustment and ah, and do this or that and treat it and do it. What are the things though that do need, are a little more complicated and need a little more of an institutional support or a programming thing or whatever. And where do you go with that kind of stuff? So I mean I could go on and on but suffice it to say, the enthusiasm for continuing to support this area has never been higher than it is right now. And it was just so gratifying to just to see the energy. One leg of the stool also is what we call our local colleague resource groups. So it’s one thing to have the kind of institutional endorsement and support from on high from headquarters, but where the action really happens is locally. Like where is there a, manufacturing operation, where is there a sales office, what’s going on in that community? Because that’s where the jobs are. So you’ve really got to engage and enlist and empower the local CRGs to kind of take the ball and really run with it and find a way to support what they want to do because they’re the ones who really have the, that’s where the employees are, that’s where the feeder support is from the local community and the schools, that kind of stuff. And the organizations or whatever is happening at that plant might lend itself to a unique set of jobs and opportunities. So the real progress we’ve made is We’ve now got 57 very active local CRGs launched with all sorts of support around the world. We’ve got the right balance of kind of corporate level endorsement and support. And then we’ve really done a lot to

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Rady Johnson: increase the courage quotient of colleagues who are willing to speak up and initiate mature conversations and the managers who are ready to partake in those conversations. So it’s a little soup you throw in the pot and mix up a little bit and again, so it could take a little size and different size and shape depending what you’re dealing with. But it’s off to the races right now, so very excited.

David Hirsch: Yeah, well, thanks for sharing. What my understanding is is that you’ve got support from the company, at the high level, right. You have these executive sponsors like yourself. So there’s that top down aspect of it. And then what I think I heard you saying is that the action is on the ground, right in the local communities and it has to be more of a bottom up approach. Right, because that’s where the employees are. They’re scattered all over, all over the world for that matter, with a big company like your own. And if you can somehow get the support from above and then be identifying the people on the ground in the local offices, then that’s the win, win strategy. And I think it’s a great legacy, right, that you had something to do with that the last, whatever number of years in your role at Pfizer. So thank you for sharing. So I’m thinking about advice now, and I’m wondering, what advice you can share with parents, maybe specifically dads, who, you know, maybe are closer to the beginning of their journey with a young child who was either diagnosed at the time of birth or, like, in your situation, you didn’t know what the situation was until some of the milestones weren’t being reached. what advice comes to mind?

Rady Johnson: Take a deep breath. You know, these things hit you, and, sometimes you see it coming, sometimes you don’t. But then sooner or later, it’s just kind of there. It’s not the script. It’s probably. It’s off script for everybody. It always is. But then as quickly as you can, you know, embrace it and jump into the pool and the deep end and just go for it. And know that one, you’re not alone. Because there’s. It’s just an enormously huge community, around the world. And you’re in locally or wherever you are. So you’re definitely not alone. There’s no single answer to whatever the situation is either. You just got to be very fluid and flexible for the rest of the journey. You know, whether it’s the resources or the advice or the counseling or the medication or the physical therapy or the connection to a job one day, you know, so kind of work through that 12 steps, if you will, as fast as you can, and then get on with the adventure that it is and just embrace it. You’ll definitely be surprised. There’ll be so many gifts that come with this situation that your family will now have and that you, as a father, confront that you can’t possibly know about until they happen. But it’s your life, and embrace it.

David Hirsch: Well, pearls of wisdom and, I’m sort of curious to know, why is it that you’ve agreed to be a mentor father as part of the Special Fathers Network?

Rady Johnson: It’s fun. It’s fun to do, and we all need each other, I guess. And so there’s a way to help and support and be of any benefit. I think it’d be fun to do. Nothing more complicated than that.

David Hirsch: Yeah. Well, we’re thrilled to have you. Thank you for being part of the network. Is there anything else you’d like to say before we wrap up?

Rady Johnson: No, thank you. Well, I guess thank you. It’s funny, I didn’t, appreciate, the organization and what it’s done for so many for so long. It’s really, really rich. It’s wonderful to know of it now and it’s a, real privilege to, to be part of it. And a personal thank you to you, what an impact you’ve made with your own passion and commitment for such a long time now. It’s a big deal and it’s very, very important. So thank you.

David Hirsch: Yeah, well, thank you for your kind thoughts. Let’s give a special shout out to Shane Madden, who is a Special Fathers Network mastermind dad in Memphis who works for Pfizer who helped connect us.

Rady Johnson: Thank you. Shane.

David Hirsch: If somebody wants to learn more about your work or to contact you, what’s the best way to do that?

Rady Johnson: I’ve got a – I first time in my life I’m happy to go public with it now. I started working at Pfizer before there were emails. Then I got an email and it was just a Pfizer email. So I’ve kind of kept that forever and now I need a new one. So It’s Rady.Johnson@outlook.com.

David Hirsch: I’ll be sure to include that in the show notes. That’ll make it as easy as possible for somebody to follow up. And I’ll also include your LinkedIn connection because I know that that’s, that’s a way that a lot of people, also connect.

Rady Johnson: Yeah, that’s probably the easiest way.

David Hirsch: Rady, thank you for your time and many insights. As a reminder, Rady is just one of the dads who’s part of the Special Fathers Network mentoring program for fathers raising a child with special needs. If you’d like to be a mentor father or are seeking advice from a, mentor father with a similar situation to your own, please go to 21stcenturydads.org thank you for listening to the latest episode of the special Father Network Dad to Dad Podcast. I hope you enjoyed the conversation as much as I did. As you probably know, the 21st Century Dads foundation is a 501c3

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David Hirsch: not for profit organization, which means we need your help to keep our content free to all concern. Would you please consider making a tax actable contribution? I would really appreciate your support, Rady.

Rady Johnson: Thanks again, David. Thank you, really enjoyed it.

Tom Couch: And thank you for listening to the Special Fathers Network Dad to Dad Podcast. The Special Fathers Network is a dad to dad mentoring program for fathers raising children with special needs. Through our personalized matching process, new fathers with special needs children match up with mentor fathers in a similar situation. It’s a great way for dads to support other dads. To find out more, go to 21stCenturyDads.org.

David Hirsch: And if you’re a dad looking for help or would like to offer help, we would be honored to have you join our closed Facebook group. Please go to facebook.com groups and search dad to dad. Lastly, we’re always looking to share interesting stories. If you’d like to share your story or know of a compelling story, please send an email to david@21stcenturydads.org

Tom Couch: The Special Fathers Network Dad to Dad Podcast was produced by me, Tom Couch. Thanks again to Amgen. Committed to unlocking the potential of biology for patients suffering from serious illnesses by discovering, developing, manufacturing and delivering innovative human therapeutics. Discover more about Amgen’s mission at Amgen.com.

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