He did not know it some 70 years ago, but Richard Johnson was born to be a curator.
A native son of this city, his home growing up, Johnson retired as curator of The Sports Museum on April 30. He was the first employee — depending on your definition, but more on that later—of that esteemed institution when it opened as the New England Sports Museum in 1982.
Starting in a humble building tucked between Soldiers Field Road and the Charles River in Boston, the Sports Museum has grown into the Smithsonian of New England sports. These days, its headquarters is major league in the TD Bank Garden…