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Distinguished Alumni 1998

Robert (Bob) E. Smith, Jr., '62

Mechanical Engineering

Robert (Bob) E. Smith, Jr. is an aerospace engineering consultant serving industrial and governmental clients. His fields of specialty are: test and evaluation of jet engine and rocket propulsion systems, including propulsion/airframe integration; design, construction, and operation of propulsion, aerodynamic, and aerospace test facilities; design, development, and operation of gas turbine and ramjet engines, solid rocket motors, and liquid rocket engines; and resolution of service-revealed difficulties in propulsion systems for operational tactical, strategic, and transport aircraft.

Mr. Smith retired as Vice President and Chief Scientist with Sverdrup Technology, Inc., after serving in various engineering and management positions for 40 years. He served the company's AEDC Group, operating contractor at USAF's Arnold Engineering Development Center, in positions that included Chief Scientist ('84-'91), Director-Aeropropulsion Programs Department ('81-'84), Director-Engine Test Facility ('80 and '76-'78), Assistant Vice President, Technology ('78-'80), and Director-von Karman Gas Dynamics Facility ('78-'80). While with Sverdrup, he designed and developed a thrust measuring system for turbine engines and an airflow measuring system that became industry standards and are still in use in numerous locations. He was a key member of many government and industry aircraft-engine integration teams from 1952 to 1991.

Mr. Smith earned a B.S. degree from Vanderbilt University and a M.S. degree from UTSI, both in mechanical engineering. He is a graduate of UCLA's Modern Engineering for Engineering Executives and of the Senior Management Program of the American Management Association. Since 1969, he has served as an associate professor at UTSI. He served two terms as a member of the U.S. delegation, AGARD-NATO Propulsion and Energetics Panel. An AIAA Fellow, he was awarded the 1995 Wright Brothers Lectureship in Aeronautics and the 1987 Ground Testing Award by AIAA. An AEDC Fellow, he received the General H.H. Arnold Award for research in supersonic combustion of hydrogen. He was selected as the Quick-Goethert lecturer for the 1996-1997 academic year by the Rheinisch-Westfalischen Technischen Hochschule and UTSI.

Mr. Smith was born in Pulaski, Tennessee. He and his wife, Beverly, reside in Manchester.