Lynn Ann Conway—a computer scientist, electrical engineer and a trans-rights activist—died in Jackson, Michigan on June 9 of heart trouble. She was 86.
Conway was born in Mount Vernon, New York on Jan. 2, 1938, according to a prepared obituary Windy City Times received. She was a reserved but exceptionally bright student who attended MIT but did not graduate due 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, Conway 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 then-minor children.
Using her new name, Conway continued work as a computer research scientist, working at Computer Applications, Inc.; Memorex; 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. Her post-transition accomplishments were foundational in the development of computers, but her pre-transition work was not credited to her until 1998. She is famous for, among many other things, launching the Mead-Conway VLSI chip design revolution.
Conway 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 (defined as a man’s sexual arousal from the thought of himself as a woman) and a failed lawsuit (with Dierdre McCloskey) against J. Michael Bailey, the controversial author of The Man Who Would be Queen.
In 2002, Conway married longtime boyfriend Charles Rogers. They lived on a 24-acre wooded property in rural Michigan.
In 2013, Windy City Times profiled Conway. In the article, she reflected on her life, including her involvement in sports.
Conway’s funeral will be held at Sherwood Funeral Home, 1109 Norvell Rd., Grass Lake, Michigan. The service will be at 1 p.m. Saturday, June 22, with visitation the night before at 4-7 p.m.