Meredith Gourdine

Meredith Gourdine ( Meredith Charles Gourdine, born September 26, 1929 in Newark, New Jersey, † November 20, 1998 in Houston ) was an American long jumper and engineer.

In 1952, he was U.S. vice- champion and won the national qualifying contest for the Olympic Games in Helsinki, where he won with 7.53 m silver medal, four inches behind his compatriot Jerome Biffle. In 1953 he became a U.S. indoor champion.

In the same year he completed his studies at Cornell University. From 1958 to 1960 he worked at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and in 1960 he received his doctorate at the California Institute of Technology. He founded his own company called Gourdine Systems and was the author of 70 patents.