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Memorial Tributes Volume 25 (2023) / Chapter Skim
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MALCOLM R. CURRIE
Pages 58-65

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From page 59...
... He began his career as a research scientist at Hughes Aircraft Research Laboratories in 1954, and quickly rose to director of The authors gratefully acknowledge the assistance of Barbara Currie   in preparing this tribute. The text also includes material from the USC announcement "Aerospace industry pioneer and USC Trustee Malcolm Currie, 94" by USC writers Gustavo Solis and Lynn Lipinski.
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From page 60...
... In 1973, two years after joining Beckman, Currie was appointed under­ secretary of defense research and engineering, responsible for planning, managing, and guiding the Defense Department's weapons research, development, and acquisition programs. In his concurrent role as national armaments director for NATO, he started and guided pioneering programs on the global positioning system and cruise missiles.
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From page 61...
... Currie Chair in Technology and the Humanities, USC's first endowed faculty position honoring exceptional achievements in both realms. In an interview at the time, Currie said that he and Barbara wanted to "recognize that many of our most effective leaders of the future will have a depth of understanding of the technologies that are changing our world as well as the breadth of vision and perspective that come from study and love of the humanities." In service beyond USC, he was president (1994)
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From page 62...
... Not one to rest in retirement, he founded Currie Technologies, a developer and distributor of electric bikes and scooters, demonstrating his confidence in what he told The Wall Street Journal in 2000 was "the coming electric revolution." He and Barbara shared a love of rare horse breeds. For 3 decades they studied horse breeding history and bloodlines and visited farms around the world to import, breed, and raise Pure Spanish Horses (Andalusians)
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From page 63...
... Paul MacCready (NAE 1979) designed it and GM built it, as a precursor to all the modern electric and hybrid vehicles, and probably feeding into Mal's forever love of hybrid power.
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From page 64...
... They arrived with a small suitcase in hand and proceeded to tell Mal about the wonderful machine in the suitcase that solved the problem of generating electricity -- it was a perpetual motion machine. Mal asked how this might relate to the laws of thermodynamics, drew blank stares from the men, and they said "let us give you an example." They started to open the machine to plug it in and Mal said, "Wait…do you have a patent on this?
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Key Terms

  • global positioning
  • commercial satellite
  • chairman mahon
  • weapons research
  • motion machine

  • perpetual motion
  • cruise missiles
  • goddard astronautics
  • astronautics award
  • barbara currie

  • defense research
  • authors gratefully
  • peptide synthesizers
  • arnold beckman
  • agoura hills

  • marine corps
  • smart weapons
  • aerospace industry
  • industry pioneer
  • trustee malcolm

  • exceptional achievements
  • research roundtable
  • breeding history
  • commercial dna
  • distinguished service

  • happy participant
  • electric revolution
  • hughes research
  • defense subcommittee
  • acquisition programs


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