Donald James Lynn; Scientist Studied Shroud of Turin

Donald James Lynn, 68, former Jet Propulsion Laboratory scientist who studied the controversial Shroud of Turin. A native of Cicero, Ill., Lynn came to Los Angeles to study nuclear engineering at UCLA. He began working with aerospace companies while studying for his master’s degree, starting with Douglas Aircraft. Later he spent 20 years working with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory on projects for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, including the Voyager project. Lynn’s particular expertise was computer enhancement of photographic images obtained in outer space of such subjects as the moons of Jupiter. Because of that expertise, Lynn was asked to join a team of scientists in 1978 when they were permitted to examine the Shroud of Turin, a controversial cloth bearing the shadowy image of a crucified man. Many Christians believe the image is that of Jesus Christ, but skeptics say the cloth dates only to the Middle Ages and not to the 1st Century, when Christ was crucified. Lynn, who said the scientific expedition was divinely inspired and came about because “God set us up,” accompanied others to Turin, Italy, to examine the cloth and to supervise the taking of 2,000 photos. At the time, the shroud was owned by Umberto II, former king of Italy then living in Spain. But in 1983, the cloth was turned over to the Roman Catholic Church. Lynn and his colleagues were unable to prove that the image was that of Christ but did conclude it was not a forgery. On Saturday in Los Angeles.