2018 CT Hall of Fame: Rick Doherty
September 18, 2018
- Author: CTA Staff
September/October 2018
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The Consumer Technology Hall of Fame honors visionaries who have made a significant impact on the consumer technology industry. These leaders and entrepreneurs have laid the foundation for the technologies, products, services and apps that are improving lives around the world.
Rick Doherty will be inducted along with 13 other industry leaders at an awards dinner on Wednesday evening, November 7, at Capitale in New York City. Over the next several months, i3 will highlight this prestigious class. Please join us for the awards dinner as we celebrate this extraordinary group of honorees.
Rick Doherty, Journalist, Consultant and Analyst
It is rare for a journalist to both seek quotes and be sought for quotes. But Richard "Rick" Doherty, a familiar sight in the front row at consumer electronics press conferences armed with a camcorder perched atop a monopod, was not just a journalist, but arguably the most knowledgeable and quoted consumer technology and engineering consultant and analyst of his time.
Born in Jamaica, Queens, NY, on January 22, 1952, Doherty's parents moved to the newly-built Levittown to take advantage of better schools. But it was Doherty's parents who provided him with both knowledge and inspiration. His mother Gertrude was a legal secretary for a leading patent attorney in Manhattan, while his father Norman worked as a machinist and inventor. Father and son would later share many patents, working together in his father's Doherty Technology Corporation lab, where he taught the youngster that the seemingly impossible doesn’t always have to be.
Young Doherty worked odd jobs to buy equipment and publications, including NASA operations manuals. Throughout his youth, he participated in science fairs, exploring topics such as electroplating, anodization, lasers and holograms.
While attending Pratt Institute in New York, Doherty captained and ran communications for the Pratt Urban Vehicle Design Team. The prototype received several awards for innovative features, including one of the first rear-view cameras with an in-dash display installed in a passenger car. He helped finance his education via Mad Rick's Electronic Repair, fixing or installing student electronics.
After graduation in 1970, Doherty sent two years as an engineer at Data General, moved to Lourdes Industries as chief engineer, then started freelancing for EE Times as a tech reporter in 1981. In 1983, he not only joined the publication full-time as a senior tech writer, but also founded The Envisioneering Group, hiring a diverse group of experts from varied backgrounds and specialties to consult on engineering projects and conduct technology market research.
Doherty spent 11 years at EE Times, covering every major technology development and breakthrough of the late 1980s and early 1990s, and continued to write after ending his fulltime job in 1994. He also grew The Envisioneering Group, building his reputation as both an insightful and knowledgeable tech reporter as well as an insightful and knowledgeable source for tech reporters.
Doherty also indulged his playful side; in 1975 and 1979 he competed in the Cannonball Run, planning, designing, engineering and building a dream machine decked out with everything an electro-physicist could devise to drive faster, safer and longer without stopping. In 1981, Doherty organized – and won – his own cross-country race, the U.S. Express, with all entry fees, less expenses, donated to local charities. That same year he married his wife, Carolyn. The couple honeymooned at CES, and both their daughters, Heather and Sabrina, attended their first trade shows while still in diapers.
A life-long space enthusiast, in 1986, Doherty both witnessed and assisted in the investigation of the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. In 2003, Doherty was nominated by longtime friend Steve Wozniak for a seat on the Presidential Medal of Technology Award Selection Committee during both the George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations.
Over the course of his career, Doherty was a member of numerous industry societies, and sat on the board of many standards and technical working groups including various IEEE societies, numerous SMPTE digital TV and HDTV standards committees, and was a planning director for CES. His vast field of knowledge combined with his quick wit made him a favorite go-to expert when an independent opinion was needed.
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