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Memorial Tributes Volume 21 (2017) / Chapter Skim
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COURTLAND D. PERKINS
Pages 310-315

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From page 310...
... This picture was taken just after he received the Guggenheim Medal at the Stanford University Faculty Club, on December 2, 2004. He is surrounded by family.
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From page 311...
... Nor can it adequately highlight his dominant role in the development of that portion of the Princeton University School of Engineering and Applied Science that now comprises a full panorama of undergraduate and graduate education, basic research, and pragmatic applications in the contemporary aerospace sciences. Nonetheless, we should endeavor to recall a few vignettes of his remarkable performances on several institutional stages.
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From page 312...
... , which immediately became the standard text in the field and remains widely used and celebrated to this day. The ensuing 27 years of his inspiring departmental oversight began with the construction and use of a variety of experimental facilities on Princeton's Forrestal Campus that were rarely found at other academic institutions -- an ­ ssortment of wind a tunnels, rocket test stands, towing tracks, chemical and electrical propulsion research laboratories, and, most remarkably, a fully operational airfield, hangar, and flight research laboratory with a number of test aircraft available not only for undergraduate flight instruction and experience but also for faculty and graduate student research projects.
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From page 313...
... Graduates James and John McDonnell, Norman Augustine, Philip Condit, and Renso Caporali all eventually ascended to become chief executive officer or chair of McDonnell-Douglas, Lockheed-Martin, Boeing, and Grumman aerospace firms. A similarly impressive list of graduates left Princeton to lead academic departments here and abroad or to populate major government or philanthropic directorates, and a succession of astronauts have further distinguished this Princeton family.
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From page 314...
... In closing this less-than-adequate professional review, we feel most compelled to testify to the incomparable charm, affability, and humble confidence with which Court pursued and dispatched his panoply of responsibilities. No student, faculty member, staff person, or outside professional colleague ever entered Court's Princeton office to present a report, a problem, an idea, or any other need, however complex, egregious, or preposterous it might appear, that was not greeted with a hearty smile, a personal anecdote or two, a touch of urbane wisdom, and a reliable promise for responsible action.
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From page 315...
... Ave et vale, dear Court. We shall miss you immensely, but your memory is secure.
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