Remembering one of the AE School’s fearless leaders.
With deepest sympathy the Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering (AE) mourns the loss of former chair and William R. T. Oaks Professor Robert Gustav Loewy. He passed away on January 3 at the age of 98 at the Jersey Shore – near the beach where he spent every summer of his long and happy life.
He was known as a brilliant engineer, beloved family man, and dear friend and mentor to countless Georgia Tech faculty, staff, and students.
His accomplishments and accolades are too many to list, but at the core reflect the type of person he was - one of a kind.
“Bob Loewy encouraged me to apply to Georgia Tech at the start of my academic career,” said Mitchell Walker, current AE School Chair and William R. T. Oaks Professor. “He was a tremendous mentor and colleague and will be greatly missed by all who knew him.
Born in Philadelphia in 1926, his childhood fascination with airplanes led to an extraordinary career that led to many revolutionary advances in the field of aerospace engineering.
He joined the U.S. Navy’s Officer Training Program which sent him to Cornell University and then Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) for his bachelor’s degree in 1947 and then to Massachusetts Institute of Technology for his master’s degree in aerospace engineering. He later earned his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1962.
Loewy first pursued his professional career in applied engineering at Cornell Aeronautical Laboratories where he developed a rotary wing unsteady aerodynamic model, a groundbreaking contribution to rotorcraft aerodynamics.
Robert "Bob" Loewy
This model, referred to as "Loewy's rotary wing theory," became a cornerstone in understanding the forces acting on helicopter rotor blades.
He was appointed chief scientist of the U.S. Air Force under President Lyndon Johnson in 1965, and then served as dean of the College of Engineering at the University of Rochester. In 1974, he became vice president and provost at RPI. He founded the Rotocraft Technology Center at Rensselaer in 1982 and served as its director.
In 1993, he became chair of AE, which later named the Loewy Library in his honor. Under Loewy’s leadership, he made numerous improvements to the curriculum that still benefits students to this day: established the BS/MS program, began offering AE courses in the Study Abroad and Exchange programs, allowed undergraduate students to use research as an elective course option, and offered aerospace engineering as a minor - to name a few.
Shortly after leaving Georgia Tech, he received the Daniel Guggenheim Medal presented by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) for, exemplary leadership in aeronautics teaching and research, development of significant state-of-the-art aerodynamic testing techniques, and outstanding contributions to public service’.
AE extends its deepest sympathy to Loewy’s family, friends, and students. The Loewy Library will always serve as a friendly reminder of the caring leader he was to so many at Georgia Tech.
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