Round Rock insurance man celebrates 50 years of business, collecting memories

Travis Johnson will tell you right off, "I do a lot of talking. I could tell you stories all day."

And after 50 years in business in Round Rock, the 75-year-old Johnson has plenty of stories to tell. The city's population has grown to more than 100,000 from about 1,200 people when he opened Johnson Insurance Agency.

The price of a house—and of most other items—has "just skyrocketed compared to what it was back in those days," he said.

Johnson began his career building houses with his friend, Dale Hester. When Hester wanted to sell those houses for about $16,000 each in 1963, "I said, 'You've lost your mind. You won't be able to sell them,'" Johnson said.

Johnson said he went into the insurance business purely as a practical matter to go along with their construction business.

On March 9, Johnson celebrated 50 years of that practical decision. He said there are two main things he is proud of about that time.

"One is that I've been in business for 50 years," he said. "[And that] 28 of those years have been after I had open-heart surgery. So I feel very fortunate. In 1986, I would have sold out for 10 more years of life, and I've run it up to 28."

For 36 years, Janette Madsen has been Johnson's secretary.

"She's still here, and she runs the place," Johnson said.

Johnson describes himself as a people person and said the biggest change he has seen in the insurance business has come about because of computers.

"The computers have taken over so much of it," he said. "It's changed so much because you can just go to a computer and plug in [your information]—you may not know what you're doing—but you can usually come up with an answer.

"I know they're just a tool, but they've taken so much of the personality out of it."

He said that despite the headaches that can come with being his own boss, he wouldn't want to work for anyone else.

"There is a personal satisfaction that I haven't had a paycheck for almost 40 years except for what I've built in the agency," he said. "Being in business for yourself is something that some people don't understand and some people kind of thrive on."

Johnson also recently celebrated his 42nd anniversary with his wife, Gundy. The two met on a blind date in 1970, married in 1972 and have two children who still live in the area.

"I've done a lot of living in 75 years—I married a German girl. I've traveled a lot on the North American continent," he said. "But I don't think I want to just stop."

If he were to retire, Johnson said, "I'd probably travel as far as my money would go. I've been all over Europe. I've been to Turkey. Australia is a place I'd like to see. I think the Australian people have a background like the Texas people."

Johnson's story of how he met his wife on that blind date involves a poodle named Minky, blood on his boots from a hunting trip that ended late and a New Year's Eve party at a German social club in San Antonio.

"So many of my stories, I'm the butt of the joke," he said with a laugh as he talked about meeting his future sister-in-law in blood-spattered boots.

Johnson's favorite story?

"My favorite? That I can't tell you," he said, laughing again.

Insurance office time machine

People have told Travis Johnson that stepping in to his office can be like stepping back in time, he said.

Items on the filing cabinet next to him include a spiked half-circle of metal—a device for weaning calves from their mothers. There is also a long metal rod that would have been used to remove the rim from a wagon wheel, he said.

Behind the door to his office is a plain white card table, not an antique but another signifier of Round Rock's history.

Back in the 1970s, two groups of men met almost daily to play dominoes at a service station at Mays and Main streets.

One group played straight dominoes. Johnson was part of a second group, which played games of 42, a type of dominoes similar to bridge. After the Chase Bank building was completed in 1979, the players moved to the community room inside.

"When they quit having the community room, we played in [my office]," Johnson said. "That [table] was a remnant of where the old domino players used to play."

Johnson said he rarely gets a chance to play dominoes anymore, instead playing bridge about 10 times per month.