Dunn, William L., Jr., Ph.D.
(PM Smoker Psychology Principal Scientist 1970s-80s) Principal scientist at PM during the 1970s and 1980s, nicknamed the "Nicotine Kid." Supervised Victor DeNoble, Paul Mele, Carolyn Levy and others. Led "smoker psychology" programs for PM.Biographical Information:
William Lawrence Dunn, Jr., was born in Richmond, Virginia, on April 19, 1924, the son of William Lawrence Dunn, Sr., (1889-1978), a native of Trevilians, Virginia, and a World War I veteran, and the former Emily Noble. While attending Lynchburg College, he served in the U. S. Naval Reserve from 1942 to 1946, attaining the rank of lieutenant. In 1947 Dunn earned his B. S. from Lynchburg College and one year later he married Elizabeth Olechnovitch.
Dunn then commenced graduate studies in Psychology at Duke University. He earned his doctorate in 1953 for a dissertation that examined the visual discrimination techniques of schizophrenic subjects. Upon graduation he returned to Richmond to accept an appointment as a clinical psychologist at the Veterans Administration Hospital, remaining in that position for the next seven years. In June of 1961, Dunn was hired as a Senior Scientist by Philip Morris. He later testified that he was initially "given the charter to initiate a research program addressed to the questions of why, how, and what people wanted to smoke. It was a broad charter." At first he had no staff working for him but that would change.
William Dunn continued to work for Philip Morris until his retirement and received a series of promotions. In 1963 he was named an Associate Principal Scientist and in 1973 he became a Principal Scientist. Two years later, on April 12, 1975, he was given the additional title of Richmond Executive Manager. Dunn was promoted to Principal Professional, Research and Development, in 1977, and then to Principal Scientist, Research and Development, in 1981, a title he held until his retirement. During his tenure at Philip Morris, Dunn also served as president of the Virginia Psychological Association, chairman of the Virginia Board of Psychologist Examiners, as president of the Virginia Academy of Applied, Consulting, and Administrative Psychology, and as a Council for Tobacco Research Special Project Grantee.
His research at Philip Morris focused on the role of nicotine in the smoking experience and as such his writings have often been cited at trial as evidence that Philip Morris was acutely aware of the primacy of nicotine. For example, in 1972 Dunn edited a book that came out of a Council for Tobacco Research-sponsored conference on the subject of why people smoke held on the Caribbean island of St. Martin. In a draft paper about that conference Dunn offered this candid rundown of the reasons people smoke: "(1) No one has ever become a cigarette smoker by smoking cigarettes without nicotine. (2) Most of the physiological responses to inhaled smoke have been shown to be nicotine-related. (3) Despite many low nicotine brand entries into the marketplace, none of them have captured a substantial segment of the market."
Dunn went on to ask rhetorically "Why then is there not a market for nicotine per se?" His answer was that "the cigarette is in fact among the most awe-inspiring examples of the ingenuity of man. … The cigarette should be conceived not as a product but as a package. The product is nicotine. The cigarette is but one of many package layers. There's the carton, which contains the pack, which contains the cigarette, which contains the smoke. The smoke is the final package. The smoker must strip off all these package layers to get to that which he seeks."
And in a May 14, 1975, memo to R. B. Seligman, Dunn wrote that "many investigators of smoking behavior, including some P.M. R&D people, have contended that the seasoned cigarette smoker smokes for the nicotine in the smoke." He concluded the memo with these provocative comments about his research goals: "Underlying all of our work in this area is the conviction that what the smoker gets in the way of smoke is independent of smoke concentration levels as delivered within the range of commercially available cigarettes. He has a variety of regulatory maneuvers at his disposal for accommodating supply to a fairly constant need. To monitor all of these behaviors simultaneously is a major objective of our Behavioral Research program."
In November of 1986 Philip Morris decided to cease its psychology department and Dunn accepted an early retirement package. Under its terms he ceased to do any work for the company but continued to receive his normal salary until his official retirement in June of 1988. Since retiring, Dunn testified in the 1997 Minnesota case but has otherwise kept a low profile.
Sources:
Allan M. Brandt, The Cigarette Century: The Rise, Fall and Deadly Persistence of the Product that Defined America (New York: Basic Books, 2007).
"Deposition of WILLIAM L. DUNN, Ph.D., July 9, 1997, MINNESOTA v. PHILIP MORRIS INC.". http://tobaccodocuments.org/datta/DUNNW070997.html.
"Deposition of WILLIAM L. DUNN, Ph.D., July 10, 1997, MINNESOTA v. PHILIP MORRIS INC.". http://tobaccodocuments.org/datta/DUNNW071097.html.
William L. Dunn, "Observations on the Relationship of Nicotine Change and Sales Change in the Marlboro". 14 May 1975. Bates: 2048391009-2048391015
http://tobaccodocuments.org/pm/2048391009-1015.html.
William L. Dunn, Jr. "Paper, 'Motives and Incentives in Cigarette Smoking', WILLIAM L. DUNN, Jr., Philip Morris Research Center, Richmond, Virginia." 1972. Bates: 1003291922-1003291939
http://tobaccodocuments.org/misc_trial/EXHIB_BN1003291922-91939.html.
William L. Dunn, Jr., ed., Smoking Behavior: Motives and Incentives (Oxford: V.H. Winston & Sons, 1973).
Richard Kluger, Ashes to Ashes: America's Hundred-Year Cigarette War and the Unabashed Triumph of Philip Morris (New York: Vintage Books, 1996).
Synonyms
Dunn, William L.*Dunne, William Dr.