Lynn Ann Conway
Age 86 (born 2 Jan 1938)9 Jun 2024
Jackson, Michigan (USA)
Natural causes
Lynn was an electronic engineer and computer scientist without whose pioneering work the computer and electronic revolutions of the 1980s would probably not have been possible.
After IBM fired her for advising them of her intention to transition in 1968, she transitioned, started a new career and, with Carver Mead, wrote the book Introduction to VLSI systems in 1978. This led to what is now known as the Mead-Conway VLSI chip design revolution.
After Lynn retired in 1999 she came out publicly and became one of the most visible trans people in the USA. Her empathy, creativity, strength and leadership made her a role model for many trans people worldwide. [including myself - when I came out in 2001, Lynn was one of my role models - Editor]
Lynn Ann Conway was an electrical engineer, computer scientist, and an activist on behalf of transgender people. She died in Jackson, Michigan on Sunday, June 9, 2024 of heart trouble.
Lynn was born in Mount Vernon, New York on January 2, 1938. She was a reserved but exceptionally bright student who attended MIT but did not graduate due [to] a difficult and ultimately unsuccessful gender transition. Conway continued education at Columbia University, where she earned B.S. and M.S.E.E. degrees in 1962 and 1963, respectively. In 1964, Conway accepted a position as a researcher at IBM’s facility in Yorktown Heights, New York. There, Conway worked with others on an advanced supercomputer project. Conway was fired in 1968 when it became known that she intended to transition. IBM later apologized for that action.
That same year, Lynn consulted Dr. Harry Benjamin and became a patient. She completed her gender transition, also in 1968. In a divorce, she was denied the right to visit with her minor children.
Using her new name, Lynn continued work as a computer research scientist, working at Computer Applications, Inc., Memorex, and, Xerox PARC, and DARPA. In 1985, she became a professor of electrical engineering and computer science at the University of Michigan and, simultaneously, Associate Dean of Engineering.
Lynn’s post-transition accomplishments were foundational in the [development] of computers, but her pre-transition work was not credited to her until 1998, when a researcher who was examining IBM’s three-decades old supercomputer project discovered that a scientist he had been unable to identify had become known as Lynn Conway. For Lynn, this resulted in a difficult decision to come out as transgender. She has since been hailed not only for her myriad post-transition accomplishments, but for her earlier work. She is famous for, among many other things, launching the Mead-Conway VLSI chip design revolution.
Lynn was well-known in transgender circles for her accomplishments and for her website, on which she told her personal story and worked to advance the rights of transgender people. She is perhaps best known in this regard for her criticism of Ray Blanchard’s theory of autogynephilia and a failed lawsuit, with Dierdre McCloskey, against J. Michael Bailey author of The Man Who Would be Queen.
In 2002, Lynn married her long-time boyfriend Charles Rogers. They lived on a 24-acre wooded property in rural Michigan.
Even if one were to ignore Lynn's technical achievements, the contents of her website alone were enormously impactful at the beginning of the 21st century, containing as it does not only many detailed resources for trans people, but also gallery/biography pages ("Transsexual Women's Successes" and "Successful TransMen: Links and Photos") which for the first time illustrated the breadth, variety and creativity of our community.
In a world before social media, that alone was incredibly impactful as the contents of such pages directly challenged the media stereotypes of trans people prevalent at the time.
Lynn's website is http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/. Her Facebook profile is https://www.facebook.com/lynn.conway.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2024/06/13/lynn-conway-dead/
https://www.aol.com/news/io-dodds-why-losing-trans-205514342.html
https://www.sparkfun.com/news/7203
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynn_Conway
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40648470
http://www.myhusbandbetty.com/wordPressNEW/2024/06/11/lynn-conway-january-2-1938-june-9-2024/
https://500queerscientists.com/lynn-conway/
https://www.invent.org/inductees/lynn-conway
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeremyalicandri/2020/11/18/ibm-apologizes-for-firing-computer-pioneer/
https://www.transgendermap.com/people/lynn-conway/
https://computerhistory.org/profile/lynn-conway/
https://computerhistory.org/profile/lynn-conway/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mw2jAZmnIqU
