Decori Johnson
Decori, aka Cori, was born March 24, 1980 in Albany, Dougherty County, GA to Joseph and Beverly Johnson, née Kinson. At the age of 7 years old, he played little league football, because it was the only way for him and his cousin Mario Kinson to get their clothes dirty without punishment. They both played little league football team on the same team, the Carver Park Razorbacks. Carver Park, formally Carver Pool and Spray Park, is now called Driskell Park and located at South McKinley Street and Holloway Avenue. It is named after longtime coach and educator Charles Driskell. At 8 years old, Cori deemed small for his age, decided to switch to basketball, which was much safer. Cori’s father, Joe, built a baskeball court in the backyard to keep Cori out of trouble and develop his basketball skills. Little did Cori know that having such a basketball court would foster the development of many of his neighbors skills too. His court was a central proving ground in his neighborhood. As a result, the kids from other parts of the city eventually came to Cori’s house just to play basketball. If you could ball at his place, then you could ball anywhere. As a result, Cori made lots of friends.
Despite Cori’s strong performance on the practice courts at Monroe Comprehensive High School, the varsity basketball coach did not want Cori on the team due to due to grudges with Cori’s father. High School was not a good time for Cori. He almost transferred to cross-town rival Dougherty Comprehensive High school, but his family did not want to fuel the city’s - sometimes - violent rivalry. It was during high school that Cori began to take an interest in how machines and electronics worked due to his car breaking down multiple times and leaving him stranded often. His car was an uncommon one among high schoolers - 1981 Volvo 240 DL sedan. As one can imagine with a foreign manufacturer in that era, any repairs were extensive and costly. After graduating from Monroe in 1998, Cori was unaware that his GPA 3.0 qualified him for the State of Georgia’s Helping Outstanding Pupils Educationally (HOPE) Scholarship. The HOPE Scholarship covers full tuition at public colleges and universities in Georgia. As of 2023, this Georgia lottery-funded scholarship has provided more than $10 billion of financial assistance for educational programs beyond high school.
As a result of the failure of his high school counselors to inform him of the HOPE Scholarship, Cori made plans to attend Albany Techical College, a two-year public community, for a diploma and certification in Electronics Technology. Albany Tech was formerly named Monroe Area Vocational-Technical School and later Albany Technical Institute. Cori’s hope was to earn an income as soon as possible. In 1999, after completing the program, Cori’s education allowed him to move to Atlanta, GA in the year 2000 at the age of 20 years old. While in Atlanta, he worked at Somera Communications, a provider of telecommunications equipment and services including repair and tooling of microwaves, transmitters, and wireless devices. At the age of 23, Cori’s job at Somera Communications relocated to Dallas, TX from years 2003 to 2005.
In 2005, Cori returned to Atlanta determined to improve his career choices based on a conversation with his Engineering Manager at Somera Communications to attend college. In 2012, after graduating from Southern Polytechnic State University - now formally Kennesaw State University (due to consolidation) - in Marietta, GA, with a bachelor degree, he has worked in Metro Atlanta in various engineering positions including at Honda Motor Company, Adidas, and thyssenkrupp. His career has allowed him to move, live, and visit different parts of the country and the world. In 2017, while working for Adidas, Cori lived in Ansbach, Germany for a year and while there he created live long friendships and experiences in addition to updates to engineering processes. Of course, this was a little difficult to manage given his wife and young son were still living in the USA. He brought his wife over to experience Germany and Paris, France as a show of his love and appreciation. Currently, Cori works as an Electrical Engineer and considers Georgia home.
