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IN MEMORIAM

Vincent Perrie Guinn

 Professor of Chemistry

Irvine

1917—2002

 

 

Vincent Perrie Guinn was born and grew up in Los Angeles, California. His parents were Marie Mortensen and Perrie V. Lundin, but early in his life his parents divorced, his mother re-married and he subsequently had his name legally changed to Guinn to honor his step-father who raised him. He died on November 7th 2002, soon after a stroke suffered the previous August.

Throughout his early years Vince developed a strong love of the outdoors and became quite an athlete. Besides enjoying hiking and the rigors and rewards of mountain climbing, he once in high school came within one-tenth of a second of the world record in the 100-yard dash.

He received A.B. and M.S. degrees in chemistry from the University of Southern California, where he was Valedictorian, and his Ph.D. degree in physical chemistry in 1949 from Harvard University, working in chemical kinetics with George Kistiakowsky, who is well-known for his participation with the Manhattan Project.

In the early 1950s Vince attended the Oak Ridge Institute of Nuclear Studies, where he first studied radiochemistry that he continued to pursue throughout his life, and from 1956 to 1961 he headed the Radiochemistry Group of the Shell Development Company in Emeryville, CA. From 1953 to 1960 he published several key articles regarding applications of radioisotopes in industry. In 1961 he moved to the General Atomic Division of the General Dynamics Corporation in San Diego, CA, where he was the Technical Director of the Activation Analysis Program using the TRIGA reactors developed there for research purposes, and accelerators providing sources of high energy gamma rays and neutrons. In keeping with his earlier experiences, Vince sought many applications of Activation Analysis in applied areas and kept the work in the forefront at many conferences and in technical journals.

Vince was one of the early chemists to recognize the potential of NAA for forensic applications and his group at General Atomic worked hard to establish base-line information so that the technique could receive wide reception in court cases. In addition, he produced for the Atomic Energy Commission two short films on the application of NAA to crime investigation. Much later, he also “starred” in a British film that imagined a court trial for the assassination of President Kennedy of a surviving Lee Harvey Oswald.

Recruiting by then Chair F.S. Rowland, Vince Guinn joined the chemistry faculty at UCI in 1969, but even in those days, housing economics in the vicinity of UCI were such that he retained his residence in La Jolla, using a small apartment in Newport Beach during the week. At UCI he developed a strong research group in forensic and other applications of Neutron Activation Analysis using the TRIGA reactor, and introduced many graduates and undergraduates to the methods. He retired from UCI in 1988, and a few years later moved to Maryland where he held a part-time position at the University of Maryland for several years.

Vince Guinn had a special enthusiasm and unique talent for working with lawyers and the courts in following up on the scientific analysis. He provided expert witness testimony in more than 150 cases during his career. He was extremely proud of his ability to “hold-up” under aggressive cross examination. One of his favorite stories (and he had many!) reported how a lawyer had challenged his credentials as a chemist by asking him to reproduce the Schroedinger Equation, on the basis that “any good chemist should be able to quote that”! Unfortunately for the lawyer, Vince’s training as a physical chemist meant that he held the Equation in high regard and he made a flawless response. At UCI he initiated a course, primarily directed at Law Enforcement personnel, to train them in scientific methods of crime investigation. In teaching this, he relied heavily on assistance from the many friends he had made in crime laboratories and law offices nationwide.

The assassination of President John F. Kennedy played a special role in Vince Guinn’s life. He had developed a method for gunshot residue analysis and made measurements on the gun-shot residues left by the type of weapon used in the assassination in comparison to samples removed from Lee Harvey Oswald’s hands and cheek. These were inconclusive, however, because the Oswald samples were obviously contaminated later or while they were being taken. At that time, the FBI decided to do its own analytical work on bullet fragments. Later, Vince and other collaborators spent many hours trying to piece together other scientific evidence from the case. This culminated in 1977 when the House Select Committee on Assassinations was formed to reexamine the Warren Commission’s earlier findings and asked Vince to reexamine all the recovered bullet fragments at UCI, using Neutron Activation Analysis. His testimony about the results was a key event in confirming the rationale for a single assassin firing just two bullets into the president’s automobile on the fateful day. Vince Guinn’s actual testimony was re-shown in November 2003 in a Court TV episode of Forensic Files.

Vince also analyzed crime-scene materials from several other key crimes, including the assassination of Senator Robert Kennedy, and the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) shootout in Los Angeles. His other work spanned many fields from animal nutrition and metal pollutants to fossil fuels and medicine.

Vince Guinn was an internationally known scientist (with over 260 publications) who enjoyed immensely the interactions with colleagues world-wide. As a result of his contacts he was a member of advisory and planning boards for several conferences, and a frequent consultant to the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna. He had a strong interest in helping other countries develop expertise in peaceful applications of nuclear science, working with 33 during his career. As a result many foreign students, post-doctoral students, and faculty colleagues were attracted to spend time at UCI honing their skills and learning new methods being developed by the Guinn group.

Vince Guinn received several awards for his work: in 1964, he was awarded the American Nuclear Society’s Special Award for Novel Applications of Nuclear Energy, being specifically cited for his forensic activation work. He was a fellow of the American Nuclear Society, the American Academy of Forensic Sciences and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He was the 1979 recipient of the George Hevesy Medal, an honor named for the discoverer of Activation Analysis.

Vince Guinn was a consummate entertainer, who enjoyed interactions with people as well as with science. At conferences he was often the center of attention and a generous host. In typical fashion, in 1999, in association with the Modern Trends in Activation Analysis conference near his Maryland home, he hosted a dinner at his home for almost the entire conference.

Vince Guinn lived through the period of great discovery and expansion of the utilization of nuclear science. He played an important role in that expansion to many applications. He will be remembered fondly for his entertaining personality and his role in promoting the techniques to many students and colleagues, to industry and to legal associates.

Vince is survived by his wife, Dr Maria Gavrilas and step-children Mirela and Mitch Gavrilas, his former wife, Thora Guinn, and their children Cheryl Long-Riffle and Terry Guinn.

 

George E. Miller

David A. Miller

F. Sherwood Rowland