General DataComm – Part I of II

#Middlebury #GeneralDataComm

This picture shows the original Timex building on Park Road Extension built in 1942 in the foreground and the second building (off Straits Turnpike – Route 63) built in 1978, both bought by General DataComm in 1984. The newer building now houses primarily healthcare related businesses; the older building houses a restaurant and other assorted businesses. (Google Earth)

By DR. ROBERT L. RAFFORD

1984 was a good year for General DataComm Industries Inc. That year, the extraordinarily successful high-tech company moved to Middlebury, Connecticut. General DataComm, or “GDC” as it is usually called, bought the two Timex buildings on Park Road Extension and Straits Turnpike for $21.5 million. Timex, in turn leased back a part of the buildings and remained there until its new headquarters were completed at 555 Christian Road in 2001. It all began with a man and a vision.

General DataComm was begun by founder Charles P. Johnson (1927-2001), a WWII Navy veteran trained in electronics. The GI Bill let him attend Northwestern University while he worked for the telephone company during the day. After working for a few electronic companies, Johnson started his own company, C. P. Johnson Associates, in 1968. It became General DataComm the following year. The company began advertising aggressively for engineers and technicians, expanding amazingly fast.

The company’s primary product was called a multiplexer. GDC’s device communicated over telephone lines and eliminated the need for multiple lines by combining them into one. This allowed computers to communicate over telephone lines. The company also produced modems. By 1973, GDC reported revenues of $6.8 million. By 1977, the company was manufacturing more than 200 types of data transmission equipment.

The company was originally located at 537 Newtown Ave. in Norwalk, Connecticut. When the Zoning Board of Appeals denied the company a future there in March 1973, it bought the property at 131 Danbury Road (Route 7) in Wilton, Connecticut, later that month. By 1974, GDC had expanded into Canada. The company grew so fast that it soon outgrew its plant in Wilton. In August 1977, it purchased the 150,030 square foot vacant Danbury Mall in downtown Danbury for a reported $1.4 million. Johnson predicted the then current work force of 452 could double.

In 1981, the New York Times reported that Unimation Inc. (a subsidiary of Condec Corporation), the world’s largest leading producer of industrial robots, and General DataComm Industries Inc., would move from Danbury to Waterbury’s Captain Neville Drive industrial park. Waterbury’s unemployment rate in 1981 was 8.3 percent, higher than the overall Connecticut rate of 6 percent. Century Brass Products was looking at the prospect of a strike, management was threatening to liquidate the company, and the city needed new industrial growth and stability.

The Hartford Courant reported in 1983, that General DataComm Industries said it was moving its headquarters and 880 employees to Middlebury. It bought the office and plant complex, consisting of 395,000 square feet, which was formerly owned by the Timex Corporation, for $21.5 million, and it sublet its Danbury headquarters to the Amphenol Corporation. The move would not create any new jobs initially, but expansion was planned. In addition, the company had a manufacturing facility in Waterbury which it had acquired earlier.

Connecticut’s economy in the year 1984 was one of the best in the United States, according to Thomas J. Lueck in a New York Times article, fueled by high levels of defense spending helping to establish one of the country’s lowest unemployment rates. While the older brass and other manufacturing companies were phasing out, new companies were moving in, including General DataComm Industries. That year, shareholders of General DataComm Industries authorized an increase in common stock to $25 million from $13 million and its preferred stock to three million from one million. In 16 short years, General DataComm had become one of the fastest growing high-tech enterprises in America, but times were about to change.

You are urged to join the Middlebury Historical Society by going online at MiddleburyHistoricalSociety.org or visiting them on Facebook. Questions about membership can be sent to Bob at robraff@comcast.net.