Simon Ramo, 1913-2016: Aerospace pioneer and ICBM chief architect was the ‘R’ in TRW
OBITUARY
Simon Ramo, chief architect of intercontinental ballistic missile system, dies at 103
Simon Ramo poses for a portrait on June 4, 2014 at age 101 at his home in Santa Monica, Calif. He is holding a plaque that shows the first page of his patent that was granted to him on December 10, 2013.
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Simon Ramo, a pioneer in Southern California’s aerospace industry, the chief architect of the nation’s intercontinental ballistic missile program and the “R” in former Redondo Beach-based TRW, died Monday. He was 103.
Ramo, known to friends as just Si, graduated with a doctorate from Pasadena’s Caltech at the age of just 23 in 1936 and held 30 patents by the time he was 30; in December 2013, at age 100, he became the oldest person ever to receive a U.S. patent.
A leading expert on microwaves and electromagnetic fields, Ramo helped design General Electric’s electron microscope before heading to Hughes Aircraft, where he led the development of Falcon air-to-air guided missiles.
After leaving Hughes, he founded the predecessor of TRW, the Ramo-Woolridge Corp., which developed the Atlas, Titan and Minuteman ICBMs. Ramo and former Caltech classmate Dean Woolridge were featured on the April 29, 1957, cover of Time magazine.
TRW FOUNDER
At TRW, Ramo created the company’s Space Technology labs, which built NASA’s first spacecraft, Pioneer 1, which launched in 1958.
TRW also developed the Pioneer 10 and 11 probes to Jupiter and instruments for the Viking 1 and 2 Martian landers, among other spacecraft.
After playing a key role in the growth of TRW, Ramo also is credited with playing a major part in its demise, championing the $7.8 billion sale of the company in 2002 to Northrop Grumman.
Wes Bush, chairman, chief executive officer and president of Northrop Grumman, acknowledged Tuesday the passing of a man he called a friend, mentor and adviser in a statement released by the company.
“He was among America’s greatest scientists and business and defense innovators, leading the development of our nation’s intercontinental ballistic missile program and pioneering the use of systems engineering,” Bush said. “He was a true aerospace visionary and patriot. His legacy will live on for generations.”
A private road on the company’s campus in 2007 was renamed Simon Ramo Drive.
VIOLINIST AND AUTHOR
In addition to his engineering achievements, Ramo was a violinist who played duets with the late Jascha Heifetz, regarded as the most influential violinist of the last century.
And he was a prolific author whose works ranged from a textbook on electromagnetic fields that remained the definitive work in the field for more than 50 years to a 1970 book on tennis titled “Extraordinary Tennis for the Ordinary Player.”
Bud Cohen, who worked with Ramo for 30 years beginning in 1957, described him as “absolutely brilliant and outgoing.
“For his 100th birthday — I was at the party — he spoke for an hour without notes about the highlights of his life,” Cohen said. “He did regard the ICBM program as his greatest accomplishment.”
Ramo, a Utah native born on May 7, 1913, in Salt Lake City, may have slowed down — somewhat — in his later years, but never really stopped.
JOINED USC FACULTY AT 95
In January 2008, for instance, Ramo joined the USC Viterbi School of Engineering as a presidential chair and professor of electrical engineering.
“Si Ramo is an ideal model for the much-talked about engineer of the 21st century,” Yannis Yortsos, dean of the engineering school, said at the time of his appointment. “We are enormously proud to associate our school with a scientist and engineer of his stature.”
Along with his late wife, Virginia, the couple contributed millions of dollars to Caltech, USC and UC schools. His wife died in 2009.
“I decided to use (age) 103 as my time to go to plan my philanthropy,” he told the Daily Breeze in 2013. “I want to run out of money so I don’t have to pay any inheritance taxes.”
There’s no word on whether Ramo achieved his goal.
At the time of his death, Ramo was serving as a life member of the Caltech board. In 2011, he received the National Space Club’s Robert H. Goddard Memorial Trophy, the group’s pre-eminent award for achievements in rocketry and astronautics.
LIVED THE DREAM
“Si lived the Caltech dream,” said David L. Lee, chairman of Caltech’s Board of Trustees, in a statement released by the school. “He was a scientist, entrepreneur, educator, adviser, trustee, benefactor and friend. His life was dedicated to an unflinching search for solutions to a wide array of challenges.”
Still, Ramo was a modest man who credited much of his success to simply being in the right place at the right time.
“Luck is extremely important and gets overlooked a great deal,” Ramo told the Breeze. “I was (also) carefully planning what I did and I had a little more success than average.”
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