John Elder Robison: Car Guy, Scholar, Author, Rock Band Roadie

Back in the mid-70’s, John Elder Robison was told by his high school teachers at Amherst High School that he was lazy and defiant. So, at age 15, he dropped out and set out to do things his own way. That turned out to be a pretty good decision.

While he may not have realized it at the time, quitting school was the beginning of what would become a lifelong journey of focused determination, self-discovery, and incredible success. Along the way, some things would come easy. Like his ability to visualize sounds waves or to design and build new technology that other people couldn’t. Other things would come much harder. Like overcoming a lack of social awareness, finding ways to apply his skills in the right context, and gaining acceptance from those who wanted to doubt or dismiss him.

Success came early for John. After spending thousands of hours as a kid taking all kinds of electronic devices apart and putting them back together again, he became a self-taught expert in how they worked. So, he started to engineer and build his own devices. This experience landed him gigs managing and designing sound electronics for local bands. By the late 70’s, he was traveling the world as a roadie with big name rock bands, engineering and building electronic devices that produced Pink Floyd’s groundbreaking synthesized sounds and visual effects like fire-breathing guitars for KISS.

When he realized his success in music would require moving away from the 413, he decided to find a new job closer to home. By the early 80’s, John was working at the Milton Bradley Company in Springfield. Many of the sound effects for the games and talking toys we all played as kids were designed by John. He would go on to work for several other electronics companies, including the Lawrence Livermore National Lab.

But, despite all of his engineering success, John still struggled to fit in and often doubted himself.

“I had an inability to perceive other people’s responses to me, so I kept thinking I was a failure when I really wasn’t at all. Quite the opposite, in fact.”

John remembers several times throughout his career when his own self-doubt was reinforced by other engineers and coworkers with college degrees who refused to accept that he could do the things he was doing without a traditional education or any formal training as an engineer.

“People would say to me, ‘you’re not a real engineer’ or ‘you’re just a high school dropout who got lucky.’”

To unwind in his spare time, he started restoring old Mercedes and Porsche cars in his garage at home. By the late ’80s, he decided to quit his job with a laser manufacturer to pursue the auto business full-time.

“I knew I had a better sense of mechanical things than most people and that I could fix cars that people really cared about. Fixing cars was something I could do on my own. So, I said, “I’ll do that.’”

John owns and operates, J.E. Robison Service in Springfield, an auto repair business that restores, services, and sells late model European vehicles, with emphasis on BMW, Mercedes, Jaguar, Land Rover, Porsche, Rolls-Royce, and Bentley. His customers ship cars to him from all over the world because of his reputation for attention to detail and his specialized expertise.

Early on, John recognized the value in becoming a certified Bosch factory service provider. Bosch manufactures many of the parts and components found in the vehicles he services, so certification helped him stand out from other repair facilities. He also started writing articles on very specific and technical repair topics. This led to roles as technical editor and advisor for several industry publications and international car clubs which helped boost his visibility and reputation in the industry as a leading authority.

“No one asks where you’ve come from when you’re fixing cars. All they care about is my attention to detail and that I can fix things other people can’t. I let my technical skills speak for me.”

John’s success, however, is not confined to his skill at fixing rare and valuable cars at his Springfield Auto Complex on Page Boulevard. It stretches far across the globe as a leading expert on Neurodiversity, a subject that has a greater connection to fixing cars than you might think.

John serves as Scholar in Residence at the College of William & Mary where he co-teaches a course on Neurodiversity and is Co-Chair of the Neurodiversity Working Group. He is also Visiting Lecturer and Advisor to the Center for Neurodiversity at Landmark College in Vermont.

“Neurodiversity is what made it possible to build some of the biggest companies in the world. At tech companies like Dell, Microsoft, and Tesla, it’s likely that more than 10 percent of employees are neurodiverse.”

Many high-tech companies now actively promote neurodiversity hiring programs, but John believes this movement is reaching its limit. The problem, he says, is these programs often require very smart, capable people with highly “systemized brains,” and “exceptionality” to self-identify as disabled.

“That’s bullshit. Exceptionality comes in many different forms, such as intelligence, dedication, reliability, and attention to detail. These are advantages. Labeling them as disabilities is one of the reasons why we’ve always done better on our own. It’s why I started fixing cars.”

Back in the 70’s, when John set out on his own, very little was understood about autism and Asperger’s. He knew he was different but didn’t know why. He was almost 40 years old when he was diagnosed. Since then, he’s been on a continuous journey of self-discovery. A big part of that journey has been writing books about his life experiences and perspective on neurodiversity. Of course, John’s writing career has been a big success, too, landing him on the New York Times Best Sellers List. To date, he’s written four books, Look Me in the Eye, Be Different: Adventures of a Free-Range Aspergian, Switched On, and Raising Cubby. His writing has been translated into 18 languages and is sold in 70+ countries.

“When people read my work, they think differently about me. After more than 45 years of being successful at a number of different things, I’ve learned that I don’t really have to prove myself anymore.”

John appears at workshops and speaking events worldwide, serves on the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee for the Secretary of Health and Human Services, and is an advisor or participant to a number of ongoing research studies.

Here in the 413, he’s also served in governance roles for the Big E and as event photographer. He lives in Amherst with his wife Maripat and their pets.