Biography

Gwynn was born November 17, 1922 in St. Louis, Mo. He was an avid radio bug for years and eventually earned his amateur radiooperator's license in 1939. The call letters were W9AGI. After graduating from Kirkwood High School in 1940, he enrolled at Princeton University. His stay there was cut short, however, due to a blood clot problem in his leg.

He returned home to Kirkwood and recuperated before attending Washington University in St. Louis for one semester. In the fall of 1941 he enrolled at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. His major was physics. However, in 1942 he enlisted in the Army Signal Corps Reserves and received six months of intense electronics training which was easy for him because of his experience as a ham operator.

He then was called to active duty and served for one day in the Army, but immediately received a medical discharge due to the leg problem. With his electronics background he took a job at the MIT Radiation Laboratory in Cambridge, MA. During the rest of World War II he conducted research on the electronic wiring of Identification Friend or Foe (IFF) Systems.

In the fall of 1945 he returned to the U of M as a sophomore and continued his study in physics. After graduating with a BS from Michigan he went on to earned an MS degree. He then became a teaching fellow and taught lab classes in elementary physics. He received his Ph.D. in Physics in 1955. The subject of his disertation was "Metal Insulator Metal Junctions". In 1949 he married Ruth Kellogg Cheney. She earned an MS degree in Physics and Math at Michigan.

After getting his Ph.D. Gwynn began work at U of M's Willow Run Research Laboratory and conducted research in "Project Michigan" which was a remote sensing program. His focus was on infrared detection. And, except for one year spent in research in Washington DC, he continued until his retirement in 1988 as a member of the Director's staff specializing in infrared detection.

In 1968, because most of the lab's research was for the Defense Department, the University of Michigan students demanded that the university divest itself of the lab. It then became an independent non-profit entity under the name of Environmental Research Institute of Michigan (ERIM).

For a number of years Gwynn and Ruth played in a local amateur string quartet. Ruth played violin and Gwynn the viola. A Professor of Music, a celloist, at U of M once had the quartet play for a group of music teachers. It was to show that even musicians lacking the very finest techniqued can get great enjoyment and satisfaction with music throughout their life.

Gwynn continues his interest in amateur radio and now has an "extra class" license. His call letters are W8BY. Among other things, to qualify for such a license one must be able to copy Morse code at the rate of 20 words per minute. He belongs to the Amateur Radio Repeater of Washtenaw (ARROW) Club and transmits regularly every Monday evening at 8:30 PM. He also enjoys playing bridge about twice a week.