John L Plumb (1933- ) was raised on a farm in western Iowa. After developing an interest in radio, he majored in electrical engineering at Iowa State. After serving in the ARDC in the Air Force, he lived in Minneapolis, where he worked as a test engineer for the Aeronautical Div. of Minneapolis-Honeywell, developed an interest in integrated circuits, enrolled at the University of Minnesota and earned his M.S. degree. He and his new wife pulled a U-Haul trailer to New York City where he earned his Ph.D. degree at New York University. He gained a position at the University of Connecticut and then grabbed an opportunity to work on integrated circuits at Transitron in Wakefield, MA. After Transitron began ceasing operation in 1973, he worked for Sylvania Lighting Products on solid-state and gaseous light sources in Massachusetts and New Hampshire until he retired in 1999. Dr. Plumb lives with his wife Mary in Danvers, MA, and Venice, FL. They have two children and four grandsons.
