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While clearing up the Unitarian Society’s archives, Kathy Richardson and Judy Murray recently came across donor information from an unexpected source — John G. Trump was a member of the congregation until his death in the1980s.
If you’re wondering if he’s any relation to the former president, yes, John G. Trump was Donald’s uncle, and a well-known engineer.
Trump lived with his family at 8 Cambridge St., where he and his wife, Elora, raised three children, John, Christine and Karen.
Winchester resident Tinie Noordzij recalls spending time with the family at their home.
Trump worked with Robert J. Van de Graaff at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where in 1937, he designed a radiation machine for cancer treatment. A second machine was used at Massachusetts General Hospital in 1938, before Trump turned his attention to a second interest.
In 1944, he worked with the Eisenhower Military Command on radar equipment. At the liberation of Paris, Trump rode into the city with Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower.
He was later given the King’s Medal for Service in the Cause of Freedom by King George VI in 1947 and the President’s Certificate of Merit by President Harry S. Truman in 1948.
After World War II, Trump, Van de Graaff and Denis M. Robinson founded High Voltage Engineering in Burlington, where they worked on various applications, including techniques for radiation beams shaped to protect healthy tissues in coordination with Lahey Clinic, where a section of the hospital is named after Trump.
A colleague recalled he was always friendly at High Voltage: “He’d walk through the lab, talking to everybody.”
Winchester Archivist Ellen Knight said there’s no way to tell if he was affiliated with a political party.
“I can see from the registration books that party affiliation was not part of registering through at least the early 1980s,” Knight said.
John Trump was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1977. He was posthumously given the National Medal of Science in 1985.
He died in Boston on Feb. 21, 1985 at the age of 77.
