Profile of Louis G. Dunn (1908-1979)

Louis G. Dunn was born in South Africa and came to the United States in 1930. By 1940, he had earned a Bachelor of Science, two Masters degrees in mechanical engineering and a Ph.D. in aeronautical engineering from Caltech, where he joined the Caltech faculty before moving to JPL as Assistant Director in 1945. Dunn was part of a team sent to Europe during the last days of World War II for the US Army Ordnance Department and saw static firings of V-2 rockets.

After serving as Acting Director for several months in 1946, Dunn became Director of JPL in 1947 and presided over the rocketry program leading up to the development of the Corporal and Sergeant missiles. He resigned in 1954 to take over the Atlas missile project for the recently formed Ramo-Wooldridge Corporation. After his retirement there, he became a cattle rancher in the Sierra Foothills south of Sacramento, California.