Walt Gurney

 I came to Miami in September 1950 as a NROTC Scholarship student with the idea of a career as a Naval Officer. I had transferred to Miami from Utica College of Syracuse University having studied Aeronautical Engineering during my freshman year. Miami had an Aeronautics Department and during my first semester in Dr. Edwards’ Physics class, he encouraged me to major in Physics instead.  I graduated in 1953 and took more Physics classes while completing my Naval Science courses at Miami.

In 1954, after being commissioned an Ensign, USN, I was assigned to the USS Toledo, a heavy cruiser based in Long Beach, CA.  Studying Physics was very helpful in the next three years for assignments involving weapons fire control systems, and combat information and electronic countermeasures operations.  My duties also included underway control of the ship and control of aircraft during all-weather intercept evolutions and guided missile operations. 

In 1957, I decided my future should be in the scientific field and transferred to the Naval Reserve as a LTJG and left the active Navy.  Three months later, the US Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory (NRDL) in San Francisco was my new place of employment joining a field test group tasked with studying fission product distributions after nuclear detonations at sea.  During Operation Hardtack in 1958, our team was at the Eniwetok Atoll in the Marshall Islands, studying the results of two subsurface nuclear detonations.  My primary task was to translate post-shot tape-recorded gamma radiation intensities as a function of time into a graphical format on a system that I had designed, built, and then operated at the test site.

In 1961, because atmospheric testing had been banned, we conducted a series of subsurface detonations off the Southern California coast at San Clemente Island using conventional explosives with the final four shots being loaded with short-lived radioactive tracers.  My responsibilities were to measure the dispersal of the radioactive material in the above surface, surface and sub-surface environments following the shots.   I designed and used the radiation detection and recording systems; the results exceeded our expectations.

Additional assignments at NRDL included conducting gamma ray shielding studies in the laboratory. These included measuring gamma ray albedo from irradiated concrete slabs and also determining Rayleigh scattering cross-sections for any contribution to total gamma ray transmission effects. In 1966, I was selected to manage a new office at NRDL as the Technical Program Manager for the Naval Electronic Systems Command for the development and acquisition of all fixed and portable radiation detection equipment for the Navy.  We did not support Admiral Rickover’s nuclear power programs. In 1969, the Navy closed NRDL and transferred all programs to other Navy laboratories.    

I chose to stay in Northern California, and in December 1969, joined the Air Force Satellite Control Facility (SCF) in Sunnyvale, CA as an Aerospace Engineer. The SCF operationally controlled all US military satellites in space.  Initially, my assignment included maintenance analysis of the sophisticated electronics equipment at the global tracking stations.  In 1971, I transferred to the operational side to evaluate the capability of the Mission Control Complexes to support newly launched space vehicles.  Rigorous prelaunch simulations were run to assess the team performance.

In 1981, I transferred to the Life Sciences Flight Experiments Project at NASA Ames Research Center, in Mountain View, CA as the Data Systems Manager.  The position entailed management of the data systems team to develop the hardware and software monitoring the vital life signs of non-human specimens flying aboard an orbiting Space Shuttle.  We successfully accomplished the first of these efforts during the April 28- May 5, 1985 flight of Spacelab 3.  In 1986, I became the Flight Operations Chief, but decided to retire from Civil Service in July and join IBM, which was under contract to the SCF to build their ground control computer systems.  

At IBM, I initially managed the Systems Software Engineering Department.  A year later, because of my experience in project work from project scientist/engineer to program manager, I was asked to start a new department of engineering project managers.   I retired in 1991 from IBM to pursue other activities, such as doing some consulting for NASA and taking computer courses in business applications, computer graphics, digital filmmaking, and 3D animation at local community colleges. While pursuing these personal goals, NASA Ames requested me to write a functional requirements document for an International Space Station microgravity facility.

I am retired and living in the Silicon Valley, where my wife, Beverly, and I have resided since 1973.  We have three sons who are all graduates of the University of California.  We have three grandchildren and enjoy being grandparents. My hobbies include Mac computer activities and radio-control model aircraft.  I am also a licensed sailplane pilot.  In the Naval Reserve, I commanded three units and served as a Regional Readiness Command Mobilization Director and also as a Projects Coordinator for the Commander, Patrol Wings Pacific.  I retired from the Navy in 1986, having served thirty-six years from midshipman to Captain.

“Although an average student in Physics classes, the program gave me a good scientific foundation.  In spite of not having an MS or a PhD, I accomplished a lot with my BS degree by applying learned scientific approaches in the conduct of diverse projects for the Navy, Air Force and NASA throughout my civilian and military careers.” Walt Gurney, BS Physics 1953