Dr. Robert E. Skelton, 84, Beloved Husband, Father, Brother, Grandfather, and Great-Grandfather died February 15th in Fairhope, Alabama surrounded by his family. He was born in Elberton, Georgia to David and Sara Skelton, and is survived by Judy, his wife of 51 years, sisters Glenda and Lynne, daughter Leigh, sons Jeff, Buzz, and David, daughters-in-law Jenny, Rachel, and Michele, 9 grandchildren, and 5 great-grandchildren. He was preceded into Heaven by his parents, sister Helen and brother Jimmy. He received an Electrical Engineering degree from Clemson University, a Master’s from the University of Alabama, and a Doctorate from UCLA in Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering. Working at the Marshall Space Flight Center, he was integral to the design of control systems on Apollo, Skylab, Space Shuttle, and the Hubble telescope. As a world-renowned professor who wrote 4 textbooks and published over 200 journal articles, he received numerous awards across many different engineering disciplines in Civil, Electrical, Aeronautical & Astronautical, and Mechanical Engineering. He was inducted into the National Academy of Engineering in 2012, our nation’s highest civilian scientist award. He spent 22 years as a professor at Purdue University, 10 years at the University of California at San Diego as Director of the Structural Systems and Control laboratory where he created a world-leading program in Dynamics and Control, and 7 years as a Fellow and Distinguished Research Professor at Texas A&M University. In recognition for his contributions, he received; The Normal Medal from the American Society for Civil Engineers, The Alexander Von Humboldt Award for Senior Scientist, the Award from Japan Society for the promotion of Science, The Russell Severence Singer Chair at UC Berkeley, and was a Life-Fellow of IEEE and a Fellow of both AIAA and AAS. A visionary in interdisciplinary collaboration across engineering fields and for his mathematical theories, he is best known for his pioneering work engineering Tensegrity structures. He has advised over 40 doctoral students and supervised over 60 master’s theses. An avid outdoorsman, he was passionate about skiing, tennis, hiking in the mountains all over the world, and how the mind learns. A humble and gracious man who valued listening over talking, learning over teaching, experiences over things, and family and faith above all. A Memorial Service was held at Fairhope United Methodist Church, Fairhope, Alabama on Saturday, February 25th at 1 pm, with a visitation prior to the service at 12 pm and a reception afterward. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that memorials be sent to the Texas A&M Foundation, 401 George Bush Drive, College Station, TX 77840. Please designate the Professor Robert “Bob” Skelton Memorial Award in Aerospace Engineering in the memo line of the check (or contribution link : http://give.am/BobSkeltonMemorial)
