I am Van Metre Lund. I live in Evanston, Illinois. I am 82 years old. I am very proud of my family - - my wife, four sons, two step-sons, five granddaughters, five grandsons, four step-grandsons, one step-great-grandson and many nieces, nephews and grand nieces and nephews. I also have a wonderful sister in Kingsley, Iowa where I was born and raised.
In 1944, I graduated with a BSEE degree from Iowa State College (now Iowa State University), then served in the U.S. Navy until 1946. I then worked as an electrical engineer in Chicago until 1948 when I moved to Washington, D.C. to become an examiner in the U.S. Patent Office. In 1950, I moved back to Chicago and worked as a patent agent while attending the John Marshall Law School at night. I graduated in 1954 and was then admitted to the Illinois bar and started a career as a patent lawyer. My specialty was patent prosecution, primarily in electronics but I had considerable experience in mechanical and other arts.
In about 1990, I started a gradual retirement from patent law practice in order to do something I had long wanted to do - - work on ideas of my own. I became fascinated with transportation and formed Autran Corp. in 1995. I developed designs for systems and for various components of the systems and obtained patents on such designs. So far, I am the patentee of eight U.S. patents - - No. 5,590,603, No. 5,590,604, No. 5,598,783, No. 5,706,735, No. 5,979,334, No. 6,082,268, No. 6,237,500 and No. 6,622,635. I am now working on disclosures of very promising new ideas. I'm 82 but am not stopping yet.