 Cunningham earned a PhD from MIT in 1952 and in 1953 became head of airborne cloud physics research at the Air Force Cambridge Research Laboratories.After retiring in 1979 Cunningham spent several years with the World Meteorological Organization as field director of an international research project on precipitation enhancement.Throughout his career and until his death in 2008 Cunningham retained responsibility for the Kent Island weather station he had first set up in 1937.