Chris Gugas Sr.; Administered Over 40,000 Lie-Detector Tests

While serving in the Marine Corp Reserves in Los Angeles in the late 1940s, Mr. Gugas played a role in a Marine Corps community service program that collected thousands of toys to be distributed to underprivileged children at Christmas. That program would later become the annual Toys for Tots campaign.

After the war, Mr. Gugas went to college at night and received a bachelor's degree from University of Southern California in 1949. He also received a master's degree in public administration from the University of California at Northridge in 1956.

He worked briefly in security for the Board of Education in Los Angeles before moving to Washington and joining the CIA in the early 1950s. He returned to Los Angeles as a criminology consultant in 1955 and was public safety director for the City of Omaha from 1962 to 1965.

He operated Professional Security Consultants in Los Angeles and conducted criminal polygraphs until 1990.

Mr. Gugas told Contemporary Authors that during his more than 30 years of polygraph work, polygraph professionals cleared more than 70 percent of those charged with a crime and obtained admissions from more than 60 percent of those who failed to pass their examination.

"I believe the polygraph has a permanent place in our criminal-justice system to protect the innocent and apprehend the guilty," he said.

Mindful of the criticism regarding techniques and accuracy of lie-detector tests, Mr. Gugas founded the National Board of Polygraph Examiners. He also was a founder and a president of the American Polygraph Association and founder of the California Academy of Polygraph Sciences.

He wrote two books, "The Silent Witness: A Polygraphist's Casebook" (1979) and, with Robert J. Ferguson, "Preemployment Polygraphy" (1984).

Survivors include his wife of 65 years, Anne C. Gugas of Springfield; three children, Chris Gugas Jr. of Raleigh, N.C., Steven E. Gugas of Los Angeles and Carol A. Hawker of Warrenton; nine grandchildren; and eight great-grandchildren.