John was born and raised in the Washington, D.C. area. Working in the photo industry, he took pictures of 3 different presidents and helped to document the construction of the subway system in Washington. Relocating to Minneapolis in 1974, he attended college at Northwestern Electronics Institute. John spent years maintaining all the plant equipment for a major commercial photo lab, met and married his wife, Julie, in 1979 and helped begin the 1-hour photo business in the twin cities. He then switched to communications work, relocating to Bemidji in 1987 and starting at Roger's.

      Communications and electronics has been a big interest for John all his life. He became a licensed Amateur (ham) radio operator in 1970 and he currently holds Extra class license NI0K. In 1979 John began working with computer hardware and software, and took up networking in 1994.