Wesley Gunkel graduated from North Dakota Agricultural College in Fargo (now North Dakota State University) in 1947 with a Bachelor of Science degree. He was also inducted into Alpha Zeta and Phi Kappa Phi. Wesley Gunkel qualified for the rigorous Student Training Program in the Army Air Corps. As a navigator in U.S. 8th Air Force, he flew from England on a B-17 Flying Fortress. His squadron was one of the busiest in WWII. Wesley continued studies in Agricultural Engineering at Iowa State University, earning a Master of Science degree in 1948 and a position as Instructor. That summer, O.C. French persuaded Wesley to join an expanding faculty in the Department of Agricultural Engineering at Cornell as Assistant Professor. Within five years, he was promoted to Associate Professor. In 1957, Professor Gunkel earned the Ph.D. degree in Agricultural Engineering from Michigan State University, and returned to Cornell, becoming Professor in 1960. In 1962- 63, the Gunkel family went to the University of Nigeria in Nsukka where Wesley was Chairman of the Agricultural Engineering Department. In 1969-70, the Gunkel family went to Hawaii where Wesley was a Consultant with Dole Pineapple Co. and designed one of the first mechanical pineapple harvesters. He was a member of the American Society for Engineering Education, American Association for the Advancement of Science, Society of Automotive Engineers, Council on Agricultural Science and Technology, National Safety Council, Human Factors Society, Fluid Power Society, and American Wind Energy Association. Also a representative of ASAE to the Engineers Joint Council, he was elected Fellow of ASAE in 1980.