Gary Nelson and his wife Suzanne visited the museum and donated the award he received on the occasion of the 250,000th 465 CRT celebration in the Building 50 auditorium.  The award consists of a rodded gun mounted on a wood plaque recognizing his role as designer of the 465 CRT.  Gary also brought the gold-plated rodding fixture for the T41 CRT gun awarded to Connie Wilson when she first retired. Each CRT used a unique precision fixture which held all the electron gun parts in alignment while 4 glass rods were partially melted and pushed against the support pins of the gun’s elements (hence rodding).  These fixtures, fabricated in the Model Shop, were a critical part of Tektronix’s advantage in CRT quality and performance. Gary is seen here with museum volunteer Chris Curtin (right).

These awards are much better viewed in high resolution. Click on the image below to view a high resolution PDF of both awards. You can zoom and pan to see all the detail.