brother - Bruce Robert class of '63
brother - Richard Charles
brother - William Edward

father - Dr. Clare A. Gunn - Okemos Board of Directors
mother - Mary Alice Gunn - Okemos Substitute Algebra, History, Counselor

wife - Deborah Alice (Hill) Gunn class of '60

Wife Deborah Alice Gunn (Hill), also 1960 class grad, died 12Feb2018 in Texas from latent radiation damage from cancer fix (1996) after 50 years fantastic marriage and partner.

KABOOM
Blew out the windows of Physics-Chem Lab room with time-delay rocket fuel experiment of potassium-carbon disulfide-glycerin. For my rocket project, I believed that it was important to discover a "chemical" way to re-ignite a rocket booster or next stage using a guaranteed "time-delay" reaction - rather than using an "electrical" solution that was costly, heavy, and unreliable. It worked...I set it up at beginning of class and it reacted at the end of class an hour later as hoped. But the explosion deafened everyone for a couple days. Hey, Mr Walbridge sanctioned this experiment and said it was OK to do this...this time I "asked for permission and supervision" learning from past Nitro experiments.


NITRO
Over several years, we secretly tried to make Nitroglycerin in the lab when no teachers were around. I am told every chemistry student in history tries to do this for chemical explosive big-bang fun - not aware that if even a tiny amount ever worked, there would be no more school building or students left. I just discovered a comment in my dad's Autobiography "A Maverick's Story" (Clare A. Gunn-ca.1924) about his older, chemistry-inclined, brother Lauren's experiments in the basement: "I recall one tense moment when he made Nitroglycerin and threw a bottle of it against rocks in the backyard-fortunately with no result". It must be in the DNA somewhere...

Hats off to Walt Schreiner '59 during these trials who installed an automobile ignition coil and battery to the Lab door handle which would draw a 3 inch spark if anyone attempted to enter, keeping them from seeing what we were doing. It was around 1958-9 that we were discovered and ended the experiment. Mr Walbridge laughed when he saw our "safety" setup for the final test...cooking the Nitro to set off a whole test-tube full of what finally seemed to be the right Nitroglycerin Formula. I had strung a gas-tube from a Bunsen burner under the test-tube in the corner of the Lab, all the way to the other corner, where we could remotely turn it on/off while we all hid behind "far-away" lab benches for "safety". Of course there would be no three-story Okemos High School left if that amount of liquid actually went off! How the school survived us is still a miracle to me.

BAND
As 1st Chair trombone, I had to be the front-row "right guard" for everyone to guide on in marching band - never could walk in a straight line and play music at the same time. Easy to pic me out in the 1960 marching band picture as the only person of 111 members who forgot to wear his white spats.

HOW TO COOK YOUR OWN GOOSE
Number 3 brother, Richard Gunn, was much younger than Bruce and I. By 1st-grade he had read and ingested every biology text available and had become a contributing member of MSU and Nat'l Geographic groups (without the Internet, nobody knew how old this academic guru was). Our neighbor across the street intently watched him doing biological things, expecting a great biology future for him when he grew up - compared to the grief Bruce and I caused her in high school Biology class. You see, she was Mrs. Halliday, our Okemos High School Biology teacher, and watched him each summer, being academically pleased, as Richard got neighborhood kids to catch and bring "bugs" to him on the front porch instead of playing cowboys and Indians.

What she didn't know was he then took the bugs apart, storing the parts in separate cigar boxes, and then the kids glued the bug parts back together in weird and wild combinations. She came over one day while Richard was admiring another creation he just finished...with one look, she was so excited as Biology teacher, that she took the new bug home, without giving Richard any chance to explain it was not real. She took it to MSU and applied for "new species" designation with scientific name she created - for all the glory that comes with such a discovery by a Biologist - with no intention of giving any credit to Richard (had it been a real bug).

It almost passed rigorous MSU inspection until the second level investigation was made under a more powerful microscope (Richard was that good in reassembly into a new, "plausible" bug). MSU discovered the glue - an unforgivable clever hoax they said - and threatened to nullify her Biology Degree and revoke her Teaching Certification! She was really mad. It took a lot of time and effort for her to save her degree, her career, and keep the embarrassment out of the press and school population. Fortunately for Richard, our family moved to Hawaii before he would be old enough to face her in Okemos High School Biology class. It was never known if this incident played into Mrs. Halliday later no-longer teaching at Okemos High School.