By Mekhi Abbott
Special to the AFRO
mabbott@afro.com
In recognition of his career accomplishments, retired Maj. Gen. Ronald L. Johnson was honored with the “Black Engineer of the Year” Award on Feb. 15 at Nola Restaurant in Baltimore. The award was presented by Delray Wylie and Darnell Armstrong at a brunch in honor of Johnson.
The award ceremony and brunch came after the 2025 BEYA STEM Conference that was held from Feb. 12-14. Johnson was BEYA’s 2025 top honoree.
“Retired Major General Dr. Ronald Johnson is my personal friend and a mentor,” said Wylie. “Ron is the epitome of progress. He knows what struggle is. He knows what hard times are. He was that rose that flourished and pushed through the concrete blossomed. He overcame obstacles that we’re statistically not supposed to overcome.”
According to Wylie, Johnson applied to West Point as a dare from a friend in high school. After being admitted and enrolling, Johnson served 32 years of active duty in the United States Army as a general officer. He was also the No. 2 engineer in the Army. After serving his country, Johnson was offered the opportunity to become the first ever senior vice president of referee operations for the National Basketball Association.
Following his stint with the NBA, Johnson went to Georgia Tech to lead their research center and teach industrial engineering. Johnson “mostly taught probability and statistics” at Georgia Tech for approximately 10 years before being promoted to chief of staff at the university in June 2024.
Johnson believes it is important that young Black students consider STEM because it is an “untapped market.”
“Growing up, I thought an engineer was someone who drove a train,” said Johnson. “STEM leads to innovation and keeps us competitive on a global scale. It is also something that really impacts our national security.”
Wylie also echoed similar sentiments. “In order for us to have progress as a people in this world, we need creative and innovative young minds. STEM allows young people to be free, creative in their thinking and innovative in order for us to grow,” he said.
Regarding the BEYA STEM conference, Johnson said it was “awesome as usual.”
Johnson is a big advocate for mentoring young people interested in STEM and held an event that connected roughly 400 high school students from the D.C.-Maryland-Virginia area with mentors that included retired admirals, generals and senior executives. Johnson was also one of the founding fathers of an event called “Stars and Stripes,” where he and others recognized and saluted military and civilian service members that are achieving excellence in the field of STEM.