The Death of W.
No, not that W.
The Los Angeles Times is reporting the death Wednesday of physicist Dean Wooldridge, better known as the "W" in TRW. Together with his partner Simon Ramo, they created a spinoff from Hughes that became a leader in space and satellite system, before it itself got swallowed by Northrop of Borg.
Wooldridge was born in Chickasha, Okla. In 1936, at 23, Wooldridge received a doctorate in physics at Caltech. He went to work at Bell Laboratories in New York, and by 1946, was chief of Bell's physical electronics department. He then moved west to join Ramo, his former Caltech classmate who had set up a 10-man electronics section at Hughes Aircraft Co. Deciding that Hughes was too unstable, they walked out and form their own company, Ramo-Wooldridge, in 1953. This company received backing from Thompson Products, and in 1958, merged to form TRW. It is worth noting that R-W, in the early days, was heavily involved in the Ballistic Missle programs, and had s subsidiary, Space Technology Laboratories (STL), that provided technical support and systems engineering for the ballistic missile program... this subsidiary was spun off in 1960, becoming The Aerospace Corporation (where I toil away).
But four years later, at the age of 49, Wooldridge retired and completely divorced himself from aerospace. He spent the next 10 years traveling with his wife before delving deeply into educating himself on neurology, going on to become a self-educated expert in neurology, publishing two books - "The Machinery of the Brain" and "The Machinery of Life". He died at the age of 93.
Why do I mention this? We are losing a generation of space pioneers, the engineering geniuses who gave us the space program, the satellite program, and modern staples such as GPS. It is always sad when a generation passes.
The Los Angeles Times is reporting the death Wednesday of physicist Dean Wooldridge, better known as the "W" in TRW. Together with his partner Simon Ramo, they created a spinoff from Hughes that became a leader in space and satellite system, before it itself got swallowed by Northrop of Borg.
Wooldridge was born in Chickasha, Okla. In 1936, at 23, Wooldridge received a doctorate in physics at Caltech. He went to work at Bell Laboratories in New York, and by 1946, was chief of Bell's physical electronics department. He then moved west to join Ramo, his former Caltech classmate who had set up a 10-man electronics section at Hughes Aircraft Co. Deciding that Hughes was too unstable, they walked out and form their own company, Ramo-Wooldridge, in 1953. This company received backing from Thompson Products, and in 1958, merged to form TRW. It is worth noting that R-W, in the early days, was heavily involved in the Ballistic Missle programs, and had s subsidiary, Space Technology Laboratories (STL), that provided technical support and systems engineering for the ballistic missile program... this subsidiary was spun off in 1960, becoming The Aerospace Corporation (where I toil away).
But four years later, at the age of 49, Wooldridge retired and completely divorced himself from aerospace. He spent the next 10 years traveling with his wife before delving deeply into educating himself on neurology, going on to become a self-educated expert in neurology, publishing two books - "The Machinery of the Brain" and "The Machinery of Life". He died at the age of 93.
Why do I mention this? We are losing a generation of space pioneers, the engineering geniuses who gave us the space program, the satellite program, and modern staples such as GPS. It is always sad when a generation passes.