John L Plummer received a BA in mechanical and electrical engineering from Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, in 1942. He worked at the Frankford Arsenal (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), the army's primary optics facility, during World War II. In 1944 he co-founded Plummer and Kershaw, and in 1968 he founded Plummer Precision Optics Co., which was one of the first optical fabrication companies to develop high-speed generation equipment, and to use robotics and air spindles in manufacturing. He received OSA’s David Richardson Medal in 1986 “for [his] contributions to the advancement of the state of the art of optical fabrication by invention, by imagination, by example, and by generously sharing [his] talents with others in the field.”

Plummer passed away in 1999.