Wayne R. Gruner, NSF Administrator, 87, Washington Post
DGH
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/16/AR2009041604108_2.html
Wayne R. Gruner NSF Administrator
Wayne R. Gruner, 87, a retired assistant to the assistant director of the
National Science Foundation, died April 11, 2009, at his home in
Gaithersburg of complications from Alzheimer's disease.
Mr. Gruner was with the foundation from 1960 until his retirement in 1980.
He started as the program director for theoretical physics, managing a
budget that grew over the years to $30 million from $6 million.
In 1970, he became the senior staff associate to the deputy assistant
director of research and had responsibility for NSF grant research support
in all the science fields. He developed plans and budgets, testified before
Congress and gave lectures on government support for science.
In 1978, he became the senior science associate assigned to NSF's regional
office in Tokyo, where he helped maintain the U.S.-Japan Cooperative Science
Program. In retirement, he worked as a science consultant to the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration.
He was born Wayne Robert Gruner in Minneapolis and received a bachelor's
degree in math and physics from the University of Minnesota in 1942.
He began working on a master's degree at the University of California at
Berkeley but left to serve in the Navy during World War II. He learned
Japanese through the Navy and saw duty in the Pacific. After Japan's
surrender, he worked in law enforcement and police supervision in Yokosuka,
Japan.
Mr. Gruner was a protege of atomic scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer and
followed him from Berkeley to Princeton, where Mr. Gruner received a
master's degree in physics in 1947. He worked for the Naval Ordnance
Laboratory and the physics branch of the Office of Naval Research before
joining NSF.
Mr. Gruner, who had some familiarity with at least five languages, loved to
travel and always learned enough of the language of the countries he visited
to appreciate the culture and to communicate with the natives. He also
maintained a lifelong interest in sports cars, motorcycles, sailboats,
target shooting and flower gardening.
His marriage to Carolyn Hodgson Gruner ended in divorce.
Survivors include his wife of 38 years, Sarah Bolyard Gruner of
Gaithersburg; three daughters from his first marriage, Karen Gruner of
Frederick, Nora Gruner of Fairbanks, Alaska, and Wendy Graves of Duluth,
Minn.; two stepchildren, Cheryl Starke of Libertytown, in Frederick County,
and Kevin Starke of Bethesda; a sister; a brother; and two grandchildren.
--
Joe Holley