Gurnea, Robert Fulton was born June 1, 1926 in Alton, Illinois. He was the youngest of the seven children of Elvin M. and Susi E. Gurnea. He had five sisters (Grace, Thelma, Ruth, Fern and Esther) and one brother, Elvin.
The family moved to Flat River, MO (now Park Hills) where Bob spent his school years. He worked in his father’s grocery store and delivered St. Louis newspapers in Flat River. He played trumpet in the high school and college bands. Bob entered the service in September 1944. Following training in Texas as a rifleman he arrived in the Philippines in March 1945. He was assigned to the 108th Regimental Combat Team (RCT) of the 40th Infantry Division. The 108th RCT was in close combat on three different islands in the Philippines. Bob received the Combat Infantry Badge, two Bronze Battle Stars and a Bronze Arrowhead (Assault wave Mindanao landing).
Following his service, Bob received a degree in Metallurgical Engineering from the Missouri School of Mines and Metallurgy (now Missouri School of Science and Technology). Following graduation he married his high school sweetheart Dottye Gordon of Flat River.
Bob worked twenty years for Midwest Piping Division of Crane Company becoming Chief Metallurgist and Manager of Quality Control.
In 1971 he moved to Union Electric (now Ameren) as Chief Metallurgist. He is the author of seven articles on Metallurgy and nondestructive testing of welds all published in well-known technical magazines. During the 1975-1985 period the failures of dissimilar welds in high pressure boilers caused numerous power plant shutdowns. Bob developed a special radiographic technique which was the only method capable of detecting dissimilar welds that were nearing failure. By using this technique, plant operations could remove defective welds on scheduled outages preventing numerous un-scheduled outages and losses of power generations throughout the electric utility industry.
Bob received a citation from EPRI (Electric Power Research Institute) for his contribution to the electric utility industry and its customers.