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Above, Robert Van de Graaf, Denis Robinson, and John G. Trump, partners in one of the first high-tech startups in Greater Boston, the widely admired High Voltage Engineering.
By Alan R. Earls
As a historian of Greater Boston’s 20th century tech sector, I have long been intrigued by “our Trump,” the uncle of Donald J. Trump. Presidential candidate Trump has occasionally cited the influence of his “genius uncle," John G. Trump, on him – sometimes crudely implying that he shares his uncle’s smarts through ‘blood.’ Whatever the merits or non-merits of those claims, it is worth thinking about the actual influence of this person, whose name he bears as Donald JOHN Trump, on his thinking, ambitions, and self image.
John G Trump, who died in 1985, as Trump was deep into his process of self-invention, was indeed a remarkably talented person, who jumped ship on the family real estate empire to dive deep into physics and electrical engineering at a time when those fields were relatively starved for money.
He never ‘got rich’ doing science but he was certainly successful, partnering with the likes of Robert J. Van de Graaff on high-voltage ‘atom smashers’ that contributed tremendously to understanding of the atom; later pioneering the application of this same science to treatment of cancer through radiation, which remains one of the principal tools in the fight against that dread disease.
Immediately after World War II, many of these advancements were made through one of the first companies to ever launch with the help of venture capital, High Voltage Engineering, started in a Boston suburb in 1946 by Trump and Van de Graaff and for many years viewed as a model science-based enterprise. In fact, perhaps the first time I heard of John Trump was during a long afternoon interview with one of his business partners, the courtly Brit, Denis Robinson, who had joined High Voltage almost immediately after its launch and likely knew Trump from their transatlantic war work on radar. By the time we conversed, Van de Graaf had been dead several years and John Trump had probably just died.
During the War itself, Trump played a key role as a scientist, trusted adviser, and diplomat of sorts within the vast Anglo-American efforts to master radar and also, much to the delight of later conspiracy theorists, evaluating the scientific papers that were nearly the whole of of Nikola Tesla’s estate, when the inventor and futurist died in obscurity in 1943. Trump was certainly on a first-name basis with many of the military and civilian leaders of the time.
John Trump went on to a long academic career at MIT and exhibited his concern for the environment by investigating the ways in which high tech could be useful, particularly in cleaning polluted waters. His cancer work is still memorialized in the name of the John G. Trump building at Lahey Clinic in Burlington, where he performed much of his research work.
And, he and his family seem to have developed musical and religious interests that were unlike anything seen in Donald Trump or his father.
Yet, Donald clearly encountered his uncle on multiple occasions and, taking his ‘genius uncle’ reference at face value, is it possible that some of DJT’s determination to move to the real estate big leagues in Manhattan and beyond and to make himself a public figure and influencer, might have something to do with John G? The Genius Uncle was counted as a sage by many and always had influence and access to policy makers throughout his life, a sufficient compensation for missing out on great wealth.
As the presidential election lurches toward a final conclusion, the John G. Trump – Donald J. Trump connection deserves a bit more consideration than it has received in making sense of the brash, outspoken GOP standard bearer.
And John Trump deserves to be better known – a brilliant and constructive man who played his best roles behind the scenes.
