Frank A. Gunther, W2ALS, and IEEE Life Fellow, died of heart complications in Florida on 24 May 1999. Mr. Gunther was a resident of Staten Island, N.Y., USA. He was 91.

Mr. Gunther was educated at Columbia University in New York City and Wagner College in Staten Island. During WWII he was a pilot and officer in the New York Civil Air Patrol. He later held a commercial pilots license.

He began his career as a radio engineer with Radio Engineering Laboratories Inc., (REL), a manufacturer of broadcast radio transmitters in Long Island City, N.Y. and worked there from 1927 to 1982. He later became chief engineer VP, executive VP, and president. He was president and CEO of Highpoint Corporation in Staten Island from 1982 to date.

Mr. Gunther was the moving force behind the Radio Engineering Laboratories' two-way radio and military radio communications equipment, and FM transmitters and receivers. REL pioneered and built the first long-range navigation (LORAN) system with more than 100 transmitters for use in WWII. Later, REL developed forward scatter, over the horizon, radio communications systems for use during the Cold War Berlin crisis. Frank was instrumental in the system's installation.

Mr. Gunther was president of the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association (AFCEA), from 1961 to 1963, president of the Radio Club of America, 1956 to 1957; president and a member of the Board of Directors of the Quarter Century Wireless Association, and a member of the Air Force Association.

His wife Lillian M. Gunther, who died recently, was also a pilot and radio amateur with call letters W2IGF. Surviving are his two sons, Frank M. and Robert C. Robert is Vice President of the Highpoint Corporation.