Gary achieved the dignity in the Order of the Iron Test Pattern of
Monochrome Mogul, with the
endorsement of Knight of the Wooden Tower.
In his autobiography, Gary said: "Since the Order of the
Iron Test Pattern is about survival and longevity I will claim April
21, 1949, the date I reported to work at KFMB-TV, in San Diego, CA as my official
starting date of employment in the TV industry. But I was first
employed as a radio broadcast engineer in October 1941 at age
nineteen.
"I studied radio by correspondence at Midland
Television, Inc., in Kansas City, Missouri beginning in October
1940, had my First Phone Ticket in August 1941, and went to work in
October at WPAY, a 100 watt radio station with a flat-top horizontal
"aerial" located in Portsmouth, Ohio, which during my time of
employment, boosted its power to 250 watts and installed a vertical
antenna.
"After five months at WPAY I joined WISH,
5-KW-D/1-KW-N, Indianapolis, Indiana, stayed seven months, then
joined the U. S. Marine Corps in October 1942. I spent six months at
the Navy radar school at Corpus Christi, Texas, and one month at
Sperry Gyroscope in New York learning airborne radar. My entire
three years in the Marine Corps was spent in radar including a tour
in the Pacific with a night fighter squadron. After the war was over
I returned to WISH for the next three years until TV beckoned
whereupon I went to Kansas City, Missouri and studied television at
the same school as before, but now named Central Technical
Institute, and then headed west, and eventually, to KFMB-TV.
"My time at KFMB-TV was very challenging and
rewarding. After three weeks at the transmitter site, I was promoted
to Studio Technical Supervisor. I didn't even have one person to
supervise! It was a very low budget operation at first--literally
built and operated on a shoestring! But with all four networks
available (DuMont had a network in those days), and with our station
the only one in San Diego and the freeze (in new construction) in
effect for the next four years, it turned out to be a real gold
mine! Monetarily for the owner and a gold mine of experience for
me--in lieu of money. We even won an Emmy for the best special
events program of 1950!
"When the freeze was over I joined Allen B. DuMont
Labs. as Western Region Sales Rep covering California, Arizona,
Nevada and Hawaii, selling television equipment to stations, and
after the stations were on the air, to the industrial market. From
DuMont I joined Cohu Electronics as sales engineer for the two
years.
"While at DuMont and especially at Cohu the customers
and the systems engineers often needed small video & audio
switchers, amplifiers and modulators, etc., and none were available
except rack mounted "bathtub" type equipment and huge power supplies
with up to 450 volts all over the backside of the chasses! These
items were repackaged and miniaturized and became our original
product line when in October 1957 I founded DYNAIR Electronics, Inc.
"DYNAIR began as a one-man, bootstrap operation, but
by 1963 we were supplying large, wideband, solid-state switching
equipment to the aerospace, broadcast, telecommunication and
education industries.
"In June of 1995, at age 73 and after thirty-eight
years in business, we sold the operating business and the name
DYNAIR to Osicom Technologies, Inc., and kept the corporate entity
which we renamed Gramman Enterprises, Inc. The Corporation owned
real estate consisting of the 40,400 square foot DYNAIR plant and
five acres of land, which we leased to Meret/Osicom for a year and
subsequently sold to a third party.
"I've been retired since the sale, and my wife Ginny
and I live in El Cajon, California. We have two daughters, and seven
grandchildren. Susan lives in Albuquerque, NM and Kelly in nearby
San Diego.
"I enjoy flying my little single-seat Mooney Mite."
Return to Membership List page
