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SANTEE — Katherine Gillon of Santee, widow of Col. Paul N. Gillon Sr., has a lot to be proud of these days. She received word from Maj. Gen.Vincent E. Boles, U.S. Army, Chief of Ordnance, that her late husband has been selected for induction into the U.S. Army Ordnance Corps Hall of Fame.

“Colonel Gillon’s selection is indicative of his contributions and selfless service to the Corps. In behalf of the entire Corps, I extend our sincere congratulations,” Boles wrote in a letter to Gillon.

“He was a wonderful guy,” remembered Mrs. Gillon, a former Miss Virginia Beach.

The induction ceremony will be held on May 12 at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds, and Gillon will be accompanied by a host of family and friends.

“Everyone is coming to the celebration,” she said. “There is an Ordnance Retreat and an Ordnance Ball, in addition to the induction ceremony.”

Col. Gillon graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in October 1933 with a bachelor of science degree and earned a master’s degree from MIT. In 1939, he was named executive officer of the Ballistic Research Lab.

Gillon was responsible for creating ENIAC, the Electronic Numerical Integrator & Computer. ENIAC was the prototype from which most other modern computers evolved. In World War II, in order for artillery to accurately reach the intended target, trajectory tables had to be produced for each gun. The Ballistic Research Laboratory at Aberdeen, Md., was responsible for producing the tables.

“Due to my husband’s military career, we moved 39 times, and lived in Hawaii before it became a state, Switzerland, Paris, Italy and Germany,” Gillon said.

The couple’s children are Paul Gillon Jr. of Washington state, Teresa Heine of Stuttgart, Germany, and Brendan S. Gillon of Canada. Teresa, a widow, will be moving to the States to live with her mother in Santee.

Col. Gillon passed away in 1996 at age 88 at the Charleston Naval Hospital.

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