Gerard “Gus” Gaynor, a long-serving IEEE volunteer and former engineering director at 3M, died on 9 March. The IEEE Life Fellow was 104.
Readers of The Institute would possibly bear in mind Gus from his 2022 profile: “From Fixing Farm Tools to Turning into a Director at 3M.” Simply final yr, he and I coauthored twoarticles. One discusses leverage relationships to spice up your profession progress. The opposite weighs the professionals and cons of pursuing a technical or managerial profession path. He was 103 years outdated then. What number of IEEE members can declare a centenarian coauthor?
I first met Gus in 2009 on the IEEE Technical Actions Board (TAB) assembly in San Juan, Puerto Rico. We sat collectively within the airplane on our method again to Minneapolis, our hometown. At dwelling I informed lots of my associates concerning the exceptional particular person—who was 87 years younger on the time—with whom I chatted throughout our six-hour flight.
A decade later, he and I met for lunch in Minneapolis. He drove himself to the restaurant, simply asking for a hand to navigate the snowy sidewalk.
A devoted IEEE volunteer
Gus’s involvement with IEEE predates the group. He joined the Institute of Radio Engineers, a predecessor society, as a scholar member in 1942. Twenty years later he turned an lively IEEE volunteer.
He served on the TAB’s finance committee and the Publications Companies and Merchandise Board. He was president of the IEEE Engineering Administration Society (now the Expertise and Engineering Administration Society ), and he was the Expertise Administration Council’s first president. He was the founding editor of IEEE-USA’s on-line journal In the present day’s Engineer, which reported on authorities laws and points affecting U.S. members’ careers. The journal is now obtainable because the e-newsletter IEEE-USA InSight.
He authored a number of books on know-how administration, revealed by IEEE-USA.
IEEE Life Fellow Gerard “Gus” Gaynor died on 9 March.The Gaynor Household
Most not too long ago, after the formation of TEMS in 2015, he turned an lively member of its govt committee. He served two phrases as vice chairman of publications.
At 100 years outdated, he led the launch of a brand new publication, TEMS Management Briefs, a novel short-format open-access publication geared toward know-how leaders.
Gus, who’s a former member of The Institute’s editorial advisory board, additionally labored with Kathy Pretz, The Institute’s editor in chief, to start out an ongoing sequence of TEMS-sponsored career-interest articles. He coauthored a number of of them.
All through his 64 years as an IEEE volunteer, he obtained a number of honors. They embody IEEE EMS’s Engineering Supervisor of the 12 months Award, the IEEE TEMS Profession Achievement Award, and the IEEE-USA McClure Quotation of Honor. In 2014 he was inducted into the IEEE Technical Actions Board Corridor of Honor.
A 25-year profession at 3M
Gus obtained a level in electrical engineering in 1950 from the College of Michigan in Ann Arbor. He labored for a number of corporations together with Automated Electrical (now a part of Nokia) and Johnson Farebox (now a part of Genfare), earlier than becoming a member of 3M in 1962.
Throughout his profitable 25-year profession at 3M, he served as chief engineer for a division in Italy, established the innovation division, and led the design and set up of the corporate’s first computerized manufacturing amenities. He retired as director of engineering in 1987.
Final yr, IEEE Life Fellow Michael Condry, a former TEMS president, organized a Zoom name with Gus and different leaders of the society to rejoice Gus’s 104th birthday. Gus regarded nicely and was his traditional upbeat self, telling everybody: “I’m good. The whole lot’s nicely. I can’t complain.”
Gus was married to Shirley Margaret Karrels Gaynor, who handed away in 2018. He lives on within the hearts and minds of his seven youngsters, seven grandchildren, two great-grandchildren, and innumerable associates and IEEE colleagues.
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