Contact Marvin Johnson by email (mmjohns@ppco.com). For a collection of articles on inventors and innovation, click here.

Sidebar: Lab Rat

Marvin Johnson, 74, keeps walking away from his familiar perch at Phillips Petroleum only to return for a new round of problem solving and patent generation. He's just a man who can't say no to a new idea.

Many of Johnson's patents come with titles such as "Hydrocarbon Steam Reforming Process" and "Sorption of Trialkyl Arsines." Not exactly the stuff of corporate adventure stories. In fact, Johnson's patents represent clear-eyed solutions to thorny problems -- and the satisfaction that they bring is tough to walk away from.

"The first time I retired, I was 58," he says. "I went to teach at Oklahoma State University. But you know what? Universities are slow! They're collections of individuals doing their own research. I missed working for a big organization with smart colleagues who were all in it together, working toward a single goal. But it took me a few years to figure that out."

He returned to Phillips in 1989, three years after he left.

The second time Johnson retired, he was 69. "My wife had some health problems, and I wanted to help out. I also thought I wanted more time to do other projects," he says. "But then I got bored. I fixed up our house and realized that I didn't have anything to do with all that time."

Johnson returned to Phillips just six weeks after he left the company. His office was still waiting for him, untouched. "I think they knew I'd be back," he says.