Monthly, we honor our recently passed here and at meetings. This page is for those who have passed in 2025; for older memories of individuals, please visit https://larcalumni.org/in-memory-of-individuals-2020-2024/. You can also use the Search bar below the menu to search for an individual by name.
2025 ————————————–
April
Clarence Melvin “Skippy” Cole, 94, passed away March 23, 2025. After graduating from Hampton high school, Skippy enrolled in the NASA apprentice program. In 1951, during the Korean War, he enlisted in the United States Navy. He served until 1955, when he was discharged with the rank of Aviation Structural Mechanic 2nd class. He returned to NASA, was assigned to the Fabrication Division, and advanced to supervisor of the Instrument Development Section. He retired from NASA in 1993 after 44 years of government service. Skippy was a talented carver of miniature wooden ducks and birds and spent countless hours doing various woodworking projects projects in his garage. He loved to play golf (scoring two holes-in-one over the course of his life) and was a member of the Hampton Seniors Golf Association for 25 years.
Kevin George “Vip” Vipavetz, 70, of Southern Shores, NC, passed away March 25, 2025. Kevin served as a Senior Systems Engineer for NASA at Langley Research Center. His career included serving as the lead engineer for the Ares 1-X project which successfully launched on October 28, 2009. He had a project on the Space Shuttle Discovery, was the Spectrum Manager for NASA at Langley, and most recently worked on the Gateway Program.
John “Tom” Barclay, 85, of Williamsburg passed away March 27, 2025. Tom graduated from the NASA Langley Apprentice School in 1963 after which he served in the U.S. Army for two years stationed mostly in Germany. After the army, he returned to Langley Research Center where he worked until he retired in 1993.
Bordie “Dan” Poole Jr, 87, of Broomfield, CO passed away March 27, 2025. He was a previous resident of Seaford, VA for over 30 years. He graduated from Newport News High School and worked for NASA for over 25 years until he retired.
March
Jack Harris, 90, of Williamsburg passed away February 11, 2025. After graduating from Marquette University in 1956 with a degree in Physics, he was a Naval Officer for 5 years with the last 2 years spent at LaRC. He then continued at LaRC as a civilian employee until his retirement in 1994. At Langley, Jack was involved with several major space flight projects, namely Lunar Orbiter in the 1960’s and the Viking mission to Mars in the 1970’s. He was awarded NASA’s Outstanding Leadership Medal for his contributions to Viking.
Dr. Melvin (Mel) Sheldahl Anderson, 94,passed away February 10, 2025 in Williamsburg, Virginia. Mel started working for the NACA (National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics) in 1952 at Langley and stayed at Langley through his career. Mel was a highly respected structures researcher. NASA sponsored Mel to pursue research at the University of Wales in Cardiff. He worked on a variety of projects for NASA including Mercury, Apollo, Viking, and the Space Shuttle. He was typically involved early in a project, helping to make sure the space vehicle was structurally stable. In his career, he had the chance to author a number of papers and attend many international conferences including conferences in the USSR, Australia and China. After he retired from NASA, Mel worked at Old Dominion University doing teaching and research.
Dr. Robert Tucker “Bob” Wingate, 88, formerly of Hampton & Williamsburg, VA, passed away on February 20, 2025 in Chantilly, VA after a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease.In 1959 Bob began work at Langley Research Center. While with NASA, he earned his master’s and doctorate degrees from UVA & Virginia Tech, respectively. Dr. Wingate was selected for the NASA Senior Executive Service and was awarded the NASA Exceptional Engineering Achievement Medal, among other honors, during his career. He retired from NASA in 1995 after 36 years of service.
John Presnell, 90, of Liberty, NC passed away January 6, 2025.John was recruited while studying physics at Guilford College, and after graduation went to work for NACA at Langley at the Unitary (wind) Tunnel. After that, he went to JSC and was the Project Engineer for Apollo 12 Lunar Module Intrepid. He was at Dryden for the Shuttle Enterprise approach and landing tests and ended his career at NASA at KSC.
Dr. Olaf Storaasli, 81, passed away February 21, 2025.He spent most of his career at NASA LaRC where he led hardware, software, and applications teams to successfully develop one of NASA’s first parallel computers, the finite element machine, and developed rapid matrix equation algorithms tailored for high-performance computers. These developments were aimed at using the finite element method for structural analysis. Following his retirement from LaRC he worked at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Centrus Energy, & Synective Labs continuing his focus on supercomputing applications. He also worked as a Graduate Advisor and Instructor at the University of Tennessee, George Washington University and Christopher Newport University. In 2024, he served as the president of Langley Alumni Association.
Doris Kluttz Blanchard, 96,of Hampton passed away on March 4, 2025. Doris graduated from Catawba College in 1949 with a double major degree in Mathematics and foreign languages. After college she joined the NACA (National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics) as a Human Computer. As NACA transitioned to NASA, Doris was promoted to Head Computer at the Supersonic Pressure Tunnel. After retiring in 1983, Doris continued her love of travel with family, friends and Earthwatch, an international environmental nonprofit. Over her lifetime, she visited and immersed herself in the cultures of 6 continents and 37 countries. In 2019, Doris was the inaugural recipient of the “Reaching for the Stars” award from the non-profit organization FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition ofScience and Technology) Chesapeake Women in STEM.
February
Irmgard Anna Richardson “Irma,” 90, of Newport News, Virginia passed away January 3, 2025.She was born in Dudeldorf, Germany and became a naturalized U.S. citizen. She worked at and retired from Langley Research Center, and enjoyed spending time with family and friends.
Willard Randolph Weaver Jr., 86, of Williamsburg, passed away January 6, 2025. His professional career of 42 years at Langley Research Center was mostly in the Space Systems Division as a physicist. One of his favorite projects early in his career was his involvement in the Viking Lunar Landing on Mars project. Another favorite project was as part of the team designing and building NASA’s space museum. Toward the end of his career, Willard served as Assistant to the Director of Space.
George Milton Summerfield, 89, of Surry passed away January 12, 2025.The son of a coal miner, George pursued an education first at ODU and later at Virginia Tech. This led him to a wonderful 36-year long career at Langley Research Center.
Gary Paul Stergin, 67, of Yorktown, VA passed away January 23, 2025.Gary worked many jobs including working for an oil drilling rig in Texas and doing well wire line service on oil wells in Louisiana before joining the Apprentice program at NASA in 1980 where he received his bachelor’s degree. Gary worked 40 years at Langley Research Center. Among his many accomplishments was an invention that earned him one of NASA’s largest commendations, the Suggestion of the Year award, and the Exceptional Achievement Medal. Gary was selected as the Branch Head of the Aerodynamics Research Support Branch where he oversaw technicians that supported the configuration, operation and general support for multiple wind tunnels and facilities. He later managed a major revitalization project to replace old buildings with new facilities which received GOLD LEED certification for energy efficiency.
Paul M. Siemers, III, 85, passed away January 20, 2025.Paul joined Langley Research Center in 1961. Paul designed hypersonic wind tunnels and arc jet facilities to address the Lunar mission return to earth reentry. He served on the Lunar Orbiter Spacecraft Operations team as the assistant to the Space Flight Operations Director. Paul then transitioned to the Viking Program and served as the aerothermodynamics engineer/manager with responsibility for the development of the entry Aerodynamic, Aeroheating, and Vehicle Dynamics databases required in the design of what is now called the Entry, Descent, and Landing, EDL system. The Viking database is still the go-to reference for Mars entries. After Viking, Paul worked on defining, developing, and implementing the multi-center Orbiter Experiments program OEX. He served as a project scientist for OEX, participated in designing and developing the Shuttle Development Flight Instrumentation DFI, and served as principal investigator and experiment development manager for the Shuttle Entry Air Data System (SEADS), which successfully flew and validated the flush orifice air data system (FADS) concept across the entry speed range — Hypersonic to subsonic. Paul received numerous awards, including a NASA Medal for Exceptional Engineering Achievement for SEADS and individual group achievement awards for Viking and SEADS. After retirement in 1998, Paul enjoyed restoring old cars and motorcycles and riding his Harley Davidson. On his motorcycle, he rode to all forty-eight continental states.
Nancy Hopkins White, 80, passed away October 19, 2024.Nancy graduated from Longwood College and William and Mary with B.S. and M.S. degrees in mathematics. She retired from NASA Langley Research Center after 38 years and went back to work for a private contractor at NASA for another 8 years.
For older memories of individuals, please visit https://larcalumni.org/in-memory-of-individuals-2020-2024/.
