Below are the first 10 and last 10 pages of uncorrected machine-read text (when available) of this chapter, followed by the top 30 algorithmically extracted key phrases from the chapter as a whole.
Intended to provide our own search engines and external engines with highly rich, chapter-representative searchable text on the opening pages of each chapter.
Because it is UNCORRECTED material, please consider the following text as a useful but insufficient proxy for the authoritative book pages.
Do not use for reproduction, copying, pasting, or reading; exclusively for search engines.
OCR for page 190
OCR for page 191
L. EUGENE ROOT
1910-1992
WRITTEN BY ROBERT E. BURGESS
SUBMITTED BY THE NAE HOME SECRETARY
in. EUGENE ROOT, who helped design Douglas aircraft of the
1930s and 1940s and later led Lockheed Missiles and Space
Company (LMSC) to maturity, died January 23,1992, in Menlo
Park, California. He was eighty-one.
He was a charter member of the RAND "think tank" and a
cofounder of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astro-
nautics. He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering
(NAE) in 1965 and was a councilor from 1968 to 1969.
Gene Root was born on July 4, 1910, in Lewiston, Idaho, one
of five children. His family moved to the San ioaquin Valley of
California he often called himself 'just a country boy"—and
he entered the University of the Pacific5UOP) in 1928.
He augmented academic and athletic scholarships by a loan
(which he repaid in seven years) from a hometown woman
whose newspapers he had delivered. While at the university,
Gene was a rushing guard on the football varsity, a member of
Delta Upsilon fraternity, president of the honor society, fresh-
man handbook editor, en cl a student government leader. He
earned a bachelor's degree in engineering and mathematics in
1932. Then he was named outstanding alumnus in 1957 and
received an honorary doctor of science in 1958. He was also a
regent of UOP in the 1960s.
He received master's degrees in mechanical engineering
(1933) and aeronautical engineering (1934) from the Califor-
191
OCR for page 192
192
MEMORIAL TRIBUTES
nia Institute of Technology, plus the Alumni Distinguished
Service Award ( 1966) . He was a registered professional engineer
. ~ .~ .
in ~a Cornea.
The legendary aircraft designer Arthur E. Raymonc! hired
Gene from Caltech to be assistant chief of aerodynamics at the
Douglas Aircraft Company in 1934. Gene improved the flying
qualities of Douglas's DC-3 transport and Dauntless dive bomber.
He helped design and test DC-4E, DC-5, and C-54 passenger
planes; A-20, A-26, and AD Skyraider bombers; the Skyrocket
research aircraft; and the F4D-1 Skyray fighter.
In 1945 he went to Europe with the Navy Technical Mission to
determine how German scientists achieved supersonic flight. Their
data, which he compiled into five thousand feet of microfilm,
showed swept wings, advanced jet engines, and air intakes. This
information saved U.S. designers up to five years of development.
In 1946 Gene Root was one of four charter members of
Douglas Aircraft's RAND Project formed at the request of the
U.S. Air Force to study strategic bombing needs which evolved
into the nonprofit RAND Corporation for studying national
security problems. Secretary of Defense James Forrestal as-
signecI Gene and then-Colonel Donald Putt to write Standard
Aircraft Characteristics, the basic text for quoting aircraft perfor-
mance. After that he pro(lucecl similar key references.
Gene helped launch the U.S. Air Force's development plan-
ning office in the Pentagon from 1951 until hejoined Lockheed
Aircraft Corporation in Burbank, California, in 1953 as
Lockheed's first director of corporate development planning.
The company, an aircraft builder, hall done research with X-7
rockets, but Gene's group convinced Lockheed's executives to
thrust vigorously into the fledgling area of missiles and space. As
a result, Lockheed created its Missile Systems Division (MSD,
which is tociay's LMSC) in Van Nuys, California, in 1954.
Gene's unabashed vigor ensured MSD's first win, the prime
contract for the U.S. Navy's Polaris Fleet Ballistic Missiles. At a
contractor briefing on December 27, 1955, in Washington,
attendees were asked to commit to the program. First to reach
the chalkboard, Gene wrote "LOCKHEED," then turned and
said, 'We're ready. Who's next?"
OCR for page 193
L. EUGENE ROOT
193
That big Polaris contract meant MSD needed a bigger site.
Gene helped influence the choice. It was to be in the agrarian
Santa Clara Valley, where he'd picked apricots to help pay his way
through college. There were major universities nearby Califor-
nia, Stanford, Santa Clara, and San Jose State—plus a ready pool
of employees. So in 1956 MSD moved from Van Nuys, building
its main plant in Sunnyvale and laboratories in Palo Alto, a true
Silicon Valley pioneer.
To head MSD, the corporation named Gene Root corporate
vice-president and MSD general manager and named Herschel
Brown MSD assistant general manager. Gene shepherded the
development not only of Polaris, the world's first submarine-
launched strategic missile, but of Agena, the workhorse space-
craft for the U.S. Air Force. Under him the company branched
into ocean, ground, and information systems.
Gene went to broader corporate duties in Burbank in August
1959, and Herschel Brown ran the Sunnyvale operation. In June
1961 the division was upgraded to Lockheed Missiles and Space
Company, and simultaneously Gene returned as its president.
Open heart surgery forced him to retire in September 1969,
by which time the Fleet Ballistic Missile program was producing
its fourth version (Poseidon), and the Lockheed Agena had
been part of the first linkup of vehicles in space.
Gene served on the scientific advisory board to the Air Force
chief of staff from 1948 to 1956, was a member of the Defense
Science Board from 1 957 through 1 966 ~ except for 1 963 ), and
was active in many steering and advisory panels for the director
of defense for research and engineering.
His honors included the U.S. Air Force's Exceptional Service
Award ~ 1 957), the Navy's Distinguished Public Service Award for
personal contributions to the Polaris missile team (1960), and
the NASA Public Service Award for Lockheed's part in the
Gemini program (1966~.
Another achievement occurred when Gene, as president of
the Institute of Aeronautical Sciences, en cl William Pickering of
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and president of the Arneri-
can Rocket Society, merged their organizations in 1962 to form
the major U.S. aerospace society, the American Institute of
OCR for page 194
194
MEMORIAL TRIBUTES
Aeronautics and Astronautics (AlAA). Gene was a fellow of the
AlAA, the American Astronautical Society, the Royal Aeronauti-
cal Society, and the British Interplanetary Society.
Besides NAE, his memberships inclucled the Operations Re-
search Society of America, Society of Automotive Engineers,
American OrcinanceAssociation, ElectronicsIndustriesAssocia-
tion, California Society of Professional Engineers, ant! National
Society of Professional Engineers. He was a 1987 inductee of the
Santa Clara County Hall of Fame.
In retirement he qualified as a licensed amateur radio opera-
tor and was a life member of the American Radio Relay League.
His call letters, WB6000 (Oscar, Oscar, Oscar), honored his
support of Project OSCAR (Orbiting Satellite CarryingArrlateur
Radio), representing a happy combination of his interests in
space research and ham radio.
Gene and Laura Beryl Mount, a UOP graduate, were married
in 1935 and celebrated their fiftieth anniversaryjust before she
(liecl in 1985. They are survived by two sons, Kirby Root and Brian
Root. The Roots' daughter, Karen King, died in 1977.
OCR for page 195
Representative terms from entire chapter:
santa clara
