During his tenure in academia, John G. Truxal authored nine books, developed seven new courses, and influenced the lives of hundreds. He began his career as a technical radar officer in the U. S. Navy and attended special radar schools at Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Truxall completed doctoral work at MIT and began teaching at Purdue University.

He moved to the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn and became professor and chairman of the electrical engineering department there in 1957. Four years later, he was named vice president of the school, and held that position for 11 years.

In 1972, Truxal was named dean of engineering and applied sciences at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. He returned to teaching in 1976 and was named a Distinguished Teaching Professor in 1977. For nine years, he directed the National Coordinating Center for Curriculum Development. Since retiring in 1991, he continues as a director of the Stony Brook Center for the New Liberal Arts Program and as a principal investigator for SUNY Research Foundation.

He is a Fellow of IEEE, ISA, and AAAS and has served on committees for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the National Science Foundation. He has received the Rufus Oldenburger Award, the Richard E. Bellman Control Heritage Award, and the Westinghouse Award. A member of the National Academy of Engineering, he has also received the Lanchester Award, the ISA Education Award, and the Liberal Studies Division Sterling Olmstead Award. He received an honorary doctorate from Purdue in 1965.