Biography

Dunn - Gano Sillick Dunn (1870-1953)

Father: Nathaniel Gano Dunn (1845-1892) Mother: Sarah Amelia Sillick (1841-) Birth Date: October 18, 1870 Born at: Yorkville, Oneida, New York

Significant Education: 1889: Graduated from the College of the City of New York. 1891: Post graduate electrical course at Columbia University – received the first degree in electrical engineering awarded in the United States. 1897: City College of New York – Master of Science

Spouse Name: Julia Thurston (Gardiner) Gayley (1864-1937) Spouse Parents: Curtis Crane Gardiner (1822-1908) and Mary Parmalee Thurston (1840-1936) Wedding Date: August 26, 1920 Wedding Place: Grace Church, New York City

Occupation: Engineer – see below.

Childhood Home: New York

Summer Home: The Dunns rented a summer cottage, “Little White Hen” on Sutton Island. After Julia Thurston (Gardiner) Gayley Dunn died in 1937, Gano moved off Sutton Island and summered aboard “Niliraga” using his stepdaughter, Agnes Malcom (Gayley) Gerrish’s cottage, “The Haven” in Northeast Harbor, as his land base.

Winter Home: 1910: 117 West 58th Street, New York City 1920-1937: 20 Washington Square, New York City

Death Date: April 10, 1953 Death Place: New York City Cemetery: Fresh Pond Crematory and Columbarium, Middle Village, Queens, New York

Gano’s brother, Harris Dunn, and James A. Healy donated the 1491 Nuremberg Chronicle to Bowdoin College in memory of Gano Dunn with whom they had purchased it.

Vessels: In 1928 Gano Sillick Dunn had “Niliraga”, an Alden-designed forty-three-foot centerboard schooner, built by Goudy & Stevens in East Boothbay, Maine. He also owned an S boat.

Gano Sillick Dunn was a “renaissance engineer”, primarily electrical, but also at least an accomplished civil and mechanical engineer. Thomas Edison was impressed with him as an undergraduate and encouraged his career. Later Gano was president of J.G. White Engineering Corporation. His firm planned and supervised the construction of airports, power plants, buildings etc. all over the world.

Not least important was his inspiring leadership in any activity with which he was associated. Gano Sillick Dunn was President of the Board of Trustees of the Cooper Union, on many other boards and was consulted by powerful people in this and other countries. He was particularly emphasized social science and literacy as important for engineers along with their scientific studies.

Dunn’s career was rich and varied. It would be impossible to describe his accomplishments in a paragraph or two. Those interested should read the biographical memoir by Vannevar Bush published by the National Academy of Science.

WWI: “Organizing the sailing of the Principe Di Udineto evacuate Americans from Italy. Gano Dunn served as treasurer, accepting cash or "evidences of credit" for passage.Many of these Americans had been forced to leave France, Spain at the start of the war. While many were wealty, banks had closed leaving ready cash unavailable, with banks refusing to cash American Express Travellers checks.

The committee of guarantors consisting of Messrs Smith Vanderbilt Butler and Dunn not only guaranteed to the American Express Company in Genoa the letters of credit travelers checks and personal checks of those of their fellow passengers who were unknown to the American Express Company but they also assumed the obligation to meet the deficiency which resulted from the difference between the passage money paid by the 399 passengers and the chartered price of the ship In round numbers this deficiency amounted to 40,000 dollars.” - Columbia Tesla Lectures: Assistant Gano Dunn[, Pages 133-134

For a warm, personal take on Gano’s story see page 51-54 in “Ralph Stanley: Tales of a Maine Boatbuilder” by Craig S. Milner and Ralph W. Stanley, published by Down East Books, Camden, Maine 2004.