Remembrances of George Schmitt
Jim Mattice
I was fortunate to hire George as a second Lt. in 1962 (+ or -) in my 1st supervisory role as a 1st Lt and Chief of the Coatings Section, Elastomers and Coatings Branch (Chief, Jerry Kelble), Nonmetallic Materials Division (Chief, Bob Schwarts). George quickly became Mr. rain erosion. He quickly became heavily published and recognized internationally which led, I suspect, to his long term love of things international.
I fondly remember among other things:
• His Friday afternoon trips to Louisville to meet Anne - don't think he missed one until they married and moved to Dayton
• Our TDY to Meersburg, Germany for an international rain erosion conference. It was also an FTD mission (remember Harry the Spook?) looking at other countries status in several M&P areas. Some other nations were doing the same "for" us. The GE's assigned a couple of "staff assistants" to us as a courtesy to understand that part of the country history. They turned out to be Intel officers but not to worry, Harry had warned us.
• The time George conducted his initial attempt to test coatings at mach 1+ mounted on airfoils attached to the tips of the huge 12' D6AC steel blades on the 40,000 HP engine test stand in Bldg. 18 (near where the Martian bodies are hidden, per some of the alien believers). George had invited me to witness from the underground bunker. Upon reaching max tip speed, the blade failed dramatically, reduced the 2' thick oak beam containment chamber to 15" of sawdust and triggered the base-wide A/C crash locator sensor system. What followed was memorable. As multiple first responders arrived from all parts of the base and nearby communities, I vividly recall repeated shouts of "who the hell is in charge?" Unfortunately, it was too late to leave. You can imagine the rest of the story!
Vince Russo:
Very sad. George was an ML legend.
Kumar Jata:
My sincere condolences! What a great person he was! He was always eager to help and guide me through various processes!
Don Shrader:
He was a good guy and will be missed by the RX luncheon crowd.
Dennis Naughton:
This is sad news about George. He was a good guy and always friendly.
John Williamson:
George and I worked together on one of my first ManTech Programs to develop a rain erosion resistant radomes for the SRAM missile. George had been doing rain erosion testing of all types of materials and provided recommendations to me (a new 2nd Lieutenant) on what ceramic materials had to most promise for the program. He was so great to work with and we became life-long friends. The program successfully qualified a plasma sprayed ceramic coating.
Bill Woody:
The hardened materials team of the years had a diversity of talents in the staff. This included several who were always baffled by a lack of insight to the GREAT AF Boilerplate! George held several jobs within this organization and clearly he was the best closer on every team. If the team decided that an issue coming from the bureaucracy in terms of a request or a statuary thing due annually, George was the one to ‘Git’er done!’. If several people had a similar assignment, George was always first done. As a result, his desk was always the cleanest at closing time, always. This ability to put his head down and just do it was unique. It should also be mentioned that his humor was always present, and one of my favorites, “We won’t be done with Rugates (a very exotic and difficult optical coating technology) until we can put them on with a roller.” This in recognition of his personal expertise with paint coatings.