[3] Gunn was born in Boston to parents of Canadian ancestry whose families had emigrated to Massachusetts from Nova Scotia and Newfoundland.

[6] As a reminder of the purchasing issues he overcame, he had a pair of R9 subway car lubricator pads mounted on a plaque in his office.

During his tenure at WMATA (the Washington Metro) from 1991 to 1994, Gunn was frequently at odds with that agency's board of directors, which included representatives from the District of Columbia and suburban jurisdictions in Maryland and Virginia.

[citation needed] The view of the Gunn administration was a departure from his predecessors' promises to make Amtrak self-sufficient in the short term, as Gunn argued that no form of passenger transportation in the United States is self-sufficient as the economy is currently structured,[10] similar to highways, airports, and air traffic control which all require large government expenditures to build and maintain.

[citation needed] Gunn eliminated almost all of the express business while improving critical equipment repair facilities and services to keep trains moving.

[1] In 2002, he stated that continued deferred maintenance would become a safety issue which he would not tolerate[5] and his management team implemented Amtrak's first system-wide comprehensive capital program with planned target dates and budgeting.

[citation needed] The New York Times at the time wrote that Gunn's opposition was the reason for the firing, as he was "widely credited with improving the railroad's management, cutting costs and imposing better financial controls," as well as "improving the state of repair of Amtrak's locomotives and aging passenger cars, as well as its tracks, signals and electrical systems, which are truly antique.

[1] A report issued by the Government Accountability Office one week before Gunn's dismissal stated that Amtrak needed to continue to improve the way it monitored performance and oversaw its finances in order to achieve financial stability.

[1] The chairman of the board, David Laney, a George W. Bush appointee, provided a statement that read "Amtrak's future now requires a different type of leader who will aggressively tackle the company's financial, management and operational challenges".