John T. Gwynne ’62

TEST PILOT EXTRAODINAIRE A test pilot and instrumental part of the Apollo program, John T. Gwynne ’62 passed away on Mar. 24 in Houston. After graduating, he was commissioned an officer in the U.S. Air Force and was deployed to Vietnam, where he earned two Distinguished Flying Crosses and 11 Air Medals. Upon leaving the Air Force, he joined Grumman Aerospace Corporation on Long Island as a consulting pilot during the development of the lunar module, and was among those chosen to help to develop the rescue plan for the Apollo 13 astronauts. In 1972, at the conclusion of the Apollo program, he joined Northrop Grumman Flight Test, where he was a test pilot for 17 years flying renowned aircraft. During that time, he spent six months as an instructor pilot in prerevolutionary Iran. An amateur photographer, his Iran photos contributed to textbooks on cultural and applied anthropology written by his wife, Margaret Anderson Gwynne ’62, a professor of anthropology at SUNY Stony Brook. He stepped away from flying in 1989 and was appointed director of flight operation for Grumman’s St. Augustine, Fla. facility until his retirement in 1997. He then became a senior planning manager, and later vice president, at the Cradle of Aviation Museum in Nassau County, overseeing its construction, as well as the curation and display of 75 historic air- and spacecraft. He retired for a second time in 2010 and relocated to Houston. In addition to his wife, he is survived by three daughters and sons-in-law, six grandchildren, and a sister.