John Merrishaw Hoyte was born in 1932 in Ping Yang Fu, China, of medical missionary parents. He attended a British-run boarding school at Chefoo, Shantung Province, along with his three brothers and two sisters. During World War ll, he was taken to the Weihsien Prison Camp where Eric Liddell served as his mentor. After the war, John went on to study in England and then worked as an engineer for Hewlett-Packard before founding his own company, Spectrex Corporation.