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Memorial Tributes: Volume 22 (2019)

Chapter: ARTUR MAGER

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Suggested Citation:"ARTUR MAGER." National Academy of Engineering. 2019. Memorial Tributes: Volume 22. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/25543.
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Citation “in recognition of his 50 years of outstanding leadership in the design and safety analysis of nuclear reactor systems.”

Dr. Levy never told his clients what they wanted to hear unless he absolutely believed in it, and those principles remained true until the day he retired. Throughout his career, he was a mentor to many in the nuclear industry and helped to shape the future of nuclear power throughout the world.

He is survived by his wife of 64 years, Eileen (née Jaques); daughter Linda C. Levy; grandchildren Laura, Stephanie, Adam, Kendra, and Ethan; and great-grandchildren Samantha and Thomas.

Suggested Citation:"ARTUR MAGER." National Academy of Engineering. 2019. Memorial Tributes: Volume 22. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/25543.
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Suggested Citation:"ARTUR MAGER." National Academy of Engineering. 2019. Memorial Tributes: Volume 22. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/25543.
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ARTUR MAGER

1919–2016

Elected in 1977

“Contributions in turbulent flow aerodynamics and engineering leadership to space and missile programs.”

BY WANDA M. AUSTIN

ARTUR MAGER, former aerospace executive and president of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, philanthropist, husband, and father, passed away peacefully of natural causes on November 22, 2016. He died at the age of 97 at the Jewish Home for the Aging in Reseda, California, among family and caregivers.

Born September 21, 1919, in Niegłowice, Poland, he relocated to Israel with his family and in 1939 emigrated to the United States. He earned his BS in aeronautical engineering from the University of Michigan in 1943, his MS from Case Institute of Technology in 1951, and in 1953 his PhD (magna cum laude) in aeronautics and physics from the California Institute of Technology. He became a naturalized citizen of the United States November 21, 1944, and during World War II served in the US Army Field Artillery and Counterintelligence (1944–46).

Dr. Mager spent his professional career in aerospace. He started as a research scientist at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (now NASA) Lewis Laboratory and then moved on to be a research engineer and consultant at the Naval Ordnance Test Station, research scientist at Astro-Marquardt Corporation, and director of National Engineering

Suggested Citation:"ARTUR MAGER." National Academy of Engineering. 2019. Memorial Tributes: Volume 22. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/25543.
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Science Company. From 1961 to 1982 he was employed by the Aerospace Corporation, where he rose to become a corporate officer and group vice president and general manager of engineering.

He authored or coauthored numerous papers, articles, and book chapters on swirling flows, boundary layer flows, supersonic burning, thrust vectoring, space vehicle design, and propulsion. He was a registered professional engineer in the state of Ohio.

He remained professionally active in retirement, consulting with NASA, the US Department of Defense, Los Alamos National Laboratory, and National Research Council (NRC). He served on NASA’s Space Applications Advisory Committee; the NRC’s Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board (1982–87), Committee on NASA’s Space Station Engineering and Technology Development (1984–87), and Committee on Space Shuttle Criticality Review and Hazard Analysis Audit (1986–88); and the Defense Science Board Task Force on Reconnaissance Regimes, among others. He also served on the industrial council of West Coast University and the University of Southern California School of Engineering board of councilors.

Dr. Mager was a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (president, 1980–81), Institute for the Advancement of Engineering, and American Association for the Advancement of Science. He received the University of Michigan Distinguished Alumni award in 1969, was named a Jimmy Doolittle Fellow of the Air Force Association (1985), and in 1986 Caltech established the annual Artur Mager Prize in Engineering, awarded to “a senior in engineering who has shown excellence in scholarship and the promise of an outstanding professional career.”

He married Phyllis Rose Weisman in 1942. During their 71 years of marriage they shared a love of classical music and actively supported causes close to their hearts, most notably the Exceptional Children’s Foundation (ECF) and the California

Suggested Citation:"ARTUR MAGER." National Academy of Engineering. 2019. Memorial Tributes: Volume 22. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/25543.
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Suggested Citation:"ARTUR MAGER." National Academy of Engineering. 2019. Memorial Tributes: Volume 22. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/25543.
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Page 214
Suggested Citation:"ARTUR MAGER." National Academy of Engineering. 2019. Memorial Tributes: Volume 22. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/25543.
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Page 215
Suggested Citation:"ARTUR MAGER." National Academy of Engineering. 2019. Memorial Tributes: Volume 22. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/25543.
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This is the 22nd Volume in the series Memorial Tributes compiled by the National Academy of Engineering as a personal remembrance of the lives and outstanding achievements of its members and foreign associates. These volumes are intended to stand as an enduring record of the many contributions of engineers and engineering to the benefit of humankind. In most cases, the authors of the tributes are contemporaries or colleagues who had personal knowledge of the interests and the engineering accomplishments of the deceased. Through its members and foreign associates, the Academy carries out the responsibilities for which it was established in 1964.

Under the charter of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering was formed as a parallel organization of outstanding engineers. Members are elected on the basis of significant contributions to engineering theory and practice and to the literature of engineering or on the basis of demonstrated unusual accomplishments in the pioneering of new and developing fields of technology. The National Academies share a responsibility to advise the federal government on matters of science and technology. The expertise and credibility that the National Academy of Engineering brings to that task stem directly from the abilities, interests, and achievements of our members and foreign associates, our colleagues and friends, whose special gifts we remember in this book.

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