Dean Wooldridge

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Dean Everett Wooldridge (May 30, 1913 in Chickasha, Oklahoma – September 20, 2006 in Santa Barbara, California) was a prominent engineer in the aerospace industry.[1]

Something of a prodigy, Wooldridge graduated from high school at the age of 14. He received his

summa cum laude) in 1936, studying the separation of isotopes.[2][3]

After leaving Caltech, Wooldridge moved first to

U.S. Air Force. The Air Force became concerned with developing management issues at Hughes, and Ramo and Wooldridge were particularly concerned when Howard Hughes avoided their attempts to discuss the problem. In September 1953, they jointly resigned, and within a week they formed the Ramo-Wooldridge Corporation on September 16, 1953.[4]

In 1958, Ramo-Wooldridge merged with Thompson Products to form TRW, which carried on the success of its predecessor. It handled system engineering and technical direction for numerous Air Force projects.[5] Wooldridge served as president of TRW until he retired in 1962. He returned to Caltech as a research associate and published several books about the physical processes underlying biology and intelligence, winning the AAAS-Westinghouse award for science writing in 1963.

He was a member of the

National Academy of Sciences
.

He died of pneumonia on September 20, 2006 in Santa Barbara, California.

Books

  • The Machinery of the Brain, Dean Wooldridge,
    McGraw-Hill
    (1963)
  • The Machinery of Life, Dean Wooldridge, McGraw-Hill (1966)
  • Mechanical Man: The Physical Basis of Intelligent Life, Dean Wooldridge, McGraw-Hill (1968)
  • Sensory Processing in the Brain, Dean Wooldridge,
    ISBN 0-471-05269-8

References

  1. ^ Stenbit JP (2008) Dean E Wooldridge, Memorial Tributes: National Academy of Engineering, 12, 348-353.
  2. ^ "Caltech Commencement Program" (PDF). Caltech Campus Publications. June 12, 1936. Retrieved March 29, 2013.
  3. ^ Greenberg, John; Buge, Carol. "Oral History of William A. Fowler" (PDF). Archives of the California Institute of Technology. p. 14.
  4. ISBN 9780307414625
    .
  5. ISBN 9781563477058
    .

External links
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