Simon Ramo
Simon Ramo (born Mary
13, 1913) is an American physicist, engineer, and business
leader. He led development of
microwave and missile technology and is sometimes known as the father
of the Intercontinental ballistic
missile (ICBM). He has been partly responsible for the
creation of two Fortune 500 companies of the 1970s; Ramo-Wooldridge (TRW after
1958) and
Bunker-Ramo (now part of Honeywell).
Ramo was born in Salt
Lake City, Utah, the son of Lithuanian immigrants who ran a small
store. He
entered the Univeristy of Utah at the age of 16,
and earned a B.S. in Electrical Engineering. By 1936, at
the
age of twenty-three) he had earned dual Ph.D. degrees from Caltech in
Physics and Electrical Engineering.
From 1936 until 1946 he
led electronics research at General
Electric. He became globally recognized as a leader in microwave research and
headed the development of GE’s Electron microscope. He
also published textbooks on Fields and Waves in Modern Radio (1944) and
Introduction to Microwaves (1945).
In 1946 he returned to
California to become director of research for the
electronics department of Hughes Aircraft, and his career became
coupled with that of Dean
Wooldridge. Together they formed an incredibly successful team for
many years, with Wooldridge concentrating on investment
and general business aspects while Ramo led research, development and
engineering efforts. By 1948, Hughes had created its
Aerospace Group to work with the also newly created U.S.
Air Force. Dr. Ramo became a Vice-President and the Group’s
Director of Operations. Ramo employed his skills in Systems
Engineering to allow Hughes to deliver integrated RADAR and aircraft
fire-control systems. He developed to air-to-air missile,
creating the Falcon missile .
By 1953, both Ramo and
the Air Force had became
increasingly frustrated with management
problems at Hughes. Ramo and Wooldridge were particularly concerned
when Howard Huges avoided their attempts to
discuss the problem. In September they jointly resigned, and within a
week they formed the Ramo-Wooldridge Corporation on
September 16, 1953.
In October 1953 an
Assistant Secretary of Defense, Trevor Gardner, created a
committee to consider the future of guided missiles. This Strategic
Missile Evaluation Committee (SMEC) was headed by John von Neumann
and included both Simon Ramo and Dean Wooldridge. In four months the
committee produced their report and recommended that a crash
program was needed to develop intercontinental ballistic missiles, and
that such a program might enable us to overtake
Russian developments by 1959-1960.
Ramo-Wooldridge became
the lead contractor for the
resulting Air Force program. With Dr. Ramo as the driving scientific
and
engineering officer, they succeeded. In 1958 Atlas Rocket delivered
a payload 5,000 miles downrange. The Atlas would go on to serve as the
launch vehicle for NASA’s Project Mercury orbital flights starting
with John Glenn in Friendship 7.
USAF General Bernard Schreiver, head of
the
ICBM program, described Ramo as "The architect of the Thor, Atlas, and
Titan" rockets.
Ramo-Wooldridge merged
with Thompson Products to become TRW, and Simon
Ramo became
Vice-Chairman. In 1969, when TRW spun off their Space Technology
Laboratories division, it
became Bunker-Ramo with Ramo as
President and expanded into the computer and communications technology
fields.
In the course of a long
and successful career Dr. Ramo
has received numerous awards and fellowships. He has been honored by
the American Philosophical Society,
the Institute of
Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the American Physical Society, and
the American Academy of Arts
and
Sciences.
Ramo has also authored
dozens of books on topics ranging
from science textbooks, corporate and technology management,
society’s relation to technology, economy, and how to play tennis.
Dr. Ramo is
retired and lives in Beverly Hills, California.
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