Jim Johnson likes to tell people he was born in the wrong place.
He grew up 1,000 miles away from Chattanooga, in and around Providence, Rhode Island, where his father was a doctor. At 15, he went away to boarding school at the highly-selective Andover, outside of Boston, and later attended Wesleyan University in Connecticut, where he earned a bachelor’s and master’s in Germanic studies.
Still, the northeast corner of the country isn’t home, he says.
Jim Johnson at a glance
* Job: Owner of BikeTours.com in Chattanooga* Education: A native of Rhode Island, he earned a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in germanic studies from Wesleyan University in Connecticut* Career: Johnson worked as director of public relations for Paul Revere Corporation, which was bought by the former Provident Life & Accident Insurance Co. in 1996. He moved to Chattanooga and worked at Provident (later merged with Unum) until 2003 when he formed a bicycle touring company, BikeToursDirect* Civic involvement: A former president of the Chattanooga Bike Club, Johnson led the effort to buy and develop the trails for Stringer’s Ridge in North Chattanooga and he recently formed a citizens group known as Chattanoogans for Responsible Growth
“I was just astray the first 40 years, but it wasn’t my fault,” he says, remembering the winding road that led him south nearly 20 years ago, when he eventually launched a growing, international business and became one of Chattanooga’s fiercest outdoor advocates.