Lynn G. Gref

Lynn Gref's Childhood

Lynn was born in Salt Lake City where he lived with his parents and his brother and sister until midway through his sophomore year in high school. Lynn, like everyone, had some unique experiences growing up. One he wasn't Mormon, so he and his siblings were oftentimes the only non-Mormon in his school class. Thus, he was not included in a number of after school activities - many of which were associated with the local Mormon Church. This and the fact that he tended to be a "loaner" led to him entertaining himself or playing with his sister which was only fifteen months his junior.

One of the things he really liked to do was fly kites. Since his family was of modest means and his dad worked at a furnishings store as an upholsterer he made essentially all of his kites. His dad brought home Kraft paper that was used in the packaging of cotton batting used in upholstery and bamboo poles that carpet came rolled on for Lynn to build his kites. The bamboo poles were split in thin pieces and cut to the necessary lengths for the ribs of his kites. The brown Kraft paper was the skin. His kites flew better than any commercial kite. His folks gave him a 1000 yard spool of upholstery twine for one birthday. With a tail made out of strips of worn out bed sheets for stability, he could fly a kite to where it could barely be seen. He was the envy of the neighborhood. Kite making and flying comprised one of Lynn's first engineering experiences.

Reading was an important past-time. The family didn't have a TV until he was ten and there were only three stations back then. They didn't even begin broadcasting until three or four in the afternoon. Lynn didn't take much to the usual children's books and instead read books on science and technology. When he was ten his folks gave him a chemistry set. It wasn't long before he had done all of the experiments in the booklet that came with the set. Being familiar with the science section of the local library, he found a high school chemistry text that had all kinds of experiments in it. He found a local chemical supply store that sold chemicals to the schools. He could buy what he needed in relatively small quantities from the store with no questions asked. Now, Lynn was quite an entrepreneur by now selling greeting cards to friends and door to door, shoveling snow for neighbors in winter, and watering and mowing neighbor's lawns in summer. Now it turned out that during winter and hot summer days he would do his chemistry experiments in the basement. He had none of the accoutrements of a high school chemistry lab. On occasion his experiments would cause him to come up out of the basement coughing and sputtering to get some fresh air. After one such event, his folks laid down the law that he could only do his experiments on the porch outside. . Thus his science career almost ended.

Lynn enjoyed scouting very much. One might say it contributed greatly to his socialization. He learned a great many practical skills and came to enjoy and appreciate the outdoors and nature. One of the great experiences was being chosen for a trip to Pensacola, Florida paid for by the Navy League. This trip involved his first airplane trip – on a military transport. He also got to see a training session of the Navy’s Blue Angels and meet and talk with them. One of Lynn’s lifetime achievements was becoming an Eagle Scout.

His interest in math and science continued through high school. But the best part of his junior high and high school experience was playing in the band. By now his family had moved to Southern California and his high school band won all kinds of honors and prizes. One of these was a trip back to Salt Lake City to play a concert at a music teacher's convention. It was neat to return to his home town with his award winning band and to see and talk to his old junior high school band teacher.