Holt Ashley
Jan. 10, 1923-May 9, 2006
Woodside, California

Holt Ashley, a Stanford University professor emeritus of aeronautics and astronautics and of mechanical engineering, died of natural causes at his Woodside home on May 9, 2006. He was 83.

"His contributions to aerospace were as large as he was," Stanford Professor Brian Cantwell, chair of the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, said at Ashley's recent memorial service. Ashley was 6-feet-8-inches tall.

He had been too tall to qualify as a military pilot during World War II.

"While he is best known for his pioneering research and books in the field of aeroelasticity -- the combination of aerodynamics and structures -- he wrote classic textbooks in aerodynamics and aircraft engineering as well," Ilan Kroo, professor of aeronautics and astronautics, said.

Ashley was born on Jan. 10, 1923, in San Francisco. He took off time from his studies at the California Institute of Technology to serve as a weather forecaster and reconnaissance officer in the U.S. Army Air Corps, serving over the North Atlantic and in Europe.

He wrote a study, "Icing in North West Europe," that earned him six medals.

He earned a master's degree and doctorate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and taught there through 1964. He then taught at the Indian Institute of Technology in Kanpur, founding the university's Department of Aeronautical Engineering.

He returned to California in 1967 to join Stanford's Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics. He retired from full-time teaching in 1989.

"Professor Ashley encouraged us to work on hang gliders or take a summer off to think about sailboats or to think about flapping vehicles, whatever, but to think independently and to think deeply," said Kroo, who had been one of his students.

Ashley is survived by a sister, Joan Ashley Ennis of Silver Spring, Md., and nephews Ashley Ennis of Silver Spring, Md. and Holt Ennis of Maynard, Mass. He was preceded in death by his wife, Frances Day Ashley.

Tags: veteran