George Martin Skurla (July 2, 1921 – September 2, 2001) graduated from

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

in 1944 and was an

aeronautical engineer Aerospace engineering is the primary field of engineering concerned with the development of aircraft and spacecraft. It has two major and overlapping branches: aeronautical engineering and astronautical engineering. Avionics engineering is sim ...

with

Grumman Corporation The Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation, later Grumman Aerospace Corporation, was a 20th century American producer of military and civilian aircraft. Founded on December 6, 1929, by Leroy Grumman and his business partners, it merged in 1994 ...

. He began his career as an apprentice engineer, rising through the ranks and in 1965 becoming Director of Operations at the

Kennedy Space Center The John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC, originally known as the NASA Launch Operations Center), located on Merritt Island, Florida, is one of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) ten field centers. Since December 1968 ...

. He was responsible for overseeing the production of the Lunar Modules for the Apollo Program. In June 1973, he oversaw operations for the design and production of the

F-14 Tomcat The Grumman F-14 Tomcat is an American carrier-capable supersonic, twin-engine, two-seat, twin-tail, variable-sweep wing fighter aircraft. The Tomcat was developed for the United States Navy's Naval Fighter Experimental (VFX) program after the ...

and

A-6 Intruder The Grumman A-6 Intruder is an American twinjet all-weather attack aircraft developed and manufactured by American aircraft company Grumman Aerospace and operated by the U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps. It was designed in response to a 1957 r ...

aircraft. He was elected president of

in 1985 and retired the next year after 42 years with

. He died from

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severi ...

Melbourne, Florida Melbourne is a city in Brevard County, Florida, United States. It is located southeast of Orlando. As of th2020 Decennial Census there was a population of 84,678. The municipality is the second-largest in the county by both size and population. ...

at Holmes Regional Medical Center at age 80. At

Florida Institute of Technology The Florida Institute of Technology (Florida Tech or FIT) is a private research university in Melbourne, Florida. The university comprises four academic colleges: Engineering & Science, Aeronautics, Psychology & Liberal Arts, and Business. App ...

, the aeronautics building is named after him, where he served on the Board of Trustees. Skurla is of Croatian descent.

References

* https://web.archive.org/web/20040923195304/http://marina.fortunecity.com/finisterre/336/george_sk_obit.htm * http://www.croatians.com/MOON-SKURLA.htm * https://web.archive.org/web/20070724194351/http://www.grummanpark.org/Newsletters/newslettervol1no5.htm

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Skurla, George M. 1921 births 2001 deaths Burials at the Cemetery of the Holy Rood American aerospace engineers University of Michigan College of Engineering alumni American people of Croatian descent Deaths from pneumonia in Florida 20th-century American engineers