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Obituary

17 January 2001

Edmund Laitone
Mechanical Engineering Professor Emeritus Edmund Laitone, an expert on experimental and theoretical aerodynamics, died at his home in El Cerrito, Dec. 18. He was 85.

A native of San Francisco, Laitone received his undergraduate degree from Berkeley in 1938. He went on to receive a M.S. in applied mathematics in 1944, and later a Ph.D. in applied mechanics in 1962, from Stanford University.

He was an aeronautical engineer with the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics from 1939 to 1945, where he did experimental and theoretical research in aerodynamics at Langley and Moffett fields. From 1945 to 1947, he was section head of flight research at Cornell Aeronautical Laboratory, where he conducted research on supersonic aerodynamics and aircraft dynamic stability.

Laitone joined the Berkeley faculty as an associate professor in 1947. He explored many interests during his academic career, and held various administrative positions within the college, while also pursuing interests outside the academic realm.

Laitone was the Miller Research Professor in the Miller Institute for Basic Research in Science 1960-61, and chaired the Division of Aeronautical Sciences from 1963 to 1968. He was also an exchange professor to Moscow University in the fall of 1964; in 1968, he was a visiting fellow at Balliol College, Oxford University. From 1979 to 1982 he was assistant dean in charge of the College of Engineering Educational T.V. Program, and from 1981 to 1995, he chaired University Extension's Engineering Department. In 1980 Laitone was a visiting lecturer in aeronautical engineering at the Northwestern Polytechnic Institute in Xian, China.

He is survived by his daughter, Vicki Laitone Cucarola of Moraga; his son, Ivan Arbogast of Watsonville; four grandchildren; and one great-grandchild. His wife, Dorothy Laitone, died in 1997. His son Jonathan Laitone died in 1981.

A private memorial service was held Jan. 13 in El Cerrito. Memorial gifts can be sent to the Jonathan Laitone Memorial Scholarship Fund, c/o Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720-1740.

 


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