6/18/2012 By William Bowman 2 min read
Written by By William Bowman
Memorial to William E. Dunn (1950–2011)
William E. Dunn, 61, passed away suddenly on Saturday, Dec. 31, 2011, at Carle Foundation Hospital, Urbana. Bill earned a bachelor’s degree in engineering mechanics at Northwestern in 1972, and studied under the late Prof. Bei Tse Chao at UIUC, earning his master’s and doctorate in nuclear engineering in 1974 and 1977, respectively. He joined the Mechanical and Industrial Engineering faculty in 1977, was promoted to associate professor in 1983, and retired in 2006. He was perhaps best known for his research with Argonne National Laboratory on the dispersal of pollutants, particularly aerosol contaminants, in the atmosphere. With his students he modeled, for example, the dispersion of smokestack emissions in turbulent flows over complex terrain and the dispersal of bio-agents in subway systems.
To conduct his research, he and a colleague successfully purchased the first minicomputer on the UIUC campus. At the time, all campus computing was done on a central CDC Cyber machine, which had limited memory and tightly regulated access. Furthermore, all computer purchases had to be approved by the director of the university’s Computing Services Office, and the answer was invariably “no.” By scrounging up the resources independently, however, Bill and his colleague broke the campus
barrier on individual purchases and opened the floodgate for other UIUC investigators.
Professor Dunn was born April 13, 1950, in Chicago to Otis and Lucille Peters Dunn. He married Sandra Dronen in Champaign in 1979; she survives. Also surviving are one son, Nathaniel (Sarah) Dunn of Champaign; one daughter, Sarah (Jonathan) Gray of Camargo; and seven grandchildren (William, Mike, Leah, and Benjamin Gray, all of Camargo; and Rosalyn, Justin, and Grace Dunn, all of Champaign); and four nephews (Charles, Clayton, Todd, and Trevor Dunn). He was preceded in death by his parents and one brother, James Otis.
He was a Shriner and a 7th degree Mason and was also a member at the First Baptist Church of Champaign in Savoy. Memorial services were held February 11, 2012, at the First Baptist Church of Champaign in Savoy. Memorial contributions may be made to First Baptist Church.