Millennium Magazine_4th Ed

176 Millennium - A Marquis Who’s Who Magazine D eveloping an interest in airplanes from a young age, the progression to becoming an aerospace engineer was as natural to Dr. Ronald LeRoy Richmond as breathing. Drawing upon a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering from the University of California Berkeley and Master of Science in aeronautical engineering from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), he received a PhD in aeronautical engineering from Caltech in 1957. While studying at the institute, he served as a teaching/research assistant from 1952 to 1957 before transferring to Douglas Aircraft Co. as an assistant group leader of aeronautical performance for the following two years. From 1959 to 1987, he was a longtime director of engineering and advisory development at Ford Aerospace before serving briefly as an adjunct associate professor at the University of California Irvine. At the conclusion of his career, he served as the director of engineering at Brunswick Defense in Costa Mesa, California, from 1988 until his retirement in 1994. Among his notable achievements, Dr. Richmond is most renowned for proving experimentally that skin friction force on long, slender cylinders was several times that on flat plates at Mach 5.8 for both laminar and turbulent boundary layers, which he documented in his thesis at Caltech. Over the course of his career, he also accrued over 3,700 hours of flying. Notably, he was also a subgroup leader for NATO Industrial Advisory Group #16 in Brussels from 1984 to 1986. A past chairman of the Orange County section and associate fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Dr. Richmond was also a commander of the Western States Association of Sheriff’s Air Squadrons and president and board chairman of Skylarks of Southern California. He also acted as a reserve lieutenant for the Orange County Sheriff’s Department from 1976 to 2012 and a flight instructor for the Young Eagles Program. In light of his exceptional contributions to aerospace engineering, Dr. Richmond was highlighted in the 71st edition of Who’s Who in America in 2018. RONALD LEROY RICHMOND, PHD AEROSPACE ENGINEER Brunswick Defense Corona Del Mar, CA ENERGY, ENGINEERING AND MANUFACTURING