Word: karman
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...kitchen, as cloistered as a scientific laboratory. A rare marriage of scientific talent and hard-headed business know-how, General Dynamics employs one scientist for every five workers, has a roster of consultants that includes such greats as Edward Teller, father of the hydrogen bomb, and Dr. Theodore von Karman, Caltech's brilliant mathematician and aerodynamicist...
...gone to two giants in the field: General Tire's Aerojet subsidiary and North American Aviation's Rocketdyne Division, both of which got in on the ground floor and today account for almost 75% of all the rocket-engine business. Founded in 1942 by Theodore von Karman, who now acts as a consultant, and a group of scientists at California Institute of Technology, Aerojet plodded along until 1945 when General Tire bought up 50% of its stock for a bargain $75,000, later increased its holdings to 95%. Since then, by pouring in funds for research and development...
...Karman smoked powerful cigars until the doctors made him stop, and his ability to drink without apparent effect is much admired by colleagues. Slivovitz (plum brandy) plays an essential part in his scientific reasoning. "First," explains a colleague, "comes the articulation of the problem, then the complexities of it, then disagreements, then Slivovitz...
Marx Approach. Von Karman never married, but this does not mean that he ignored women. At parties, explains a Caltech professor, he always took "the Harpo Marx approach. He'd walk into a room, glance around for the most attractive woman in the place and make a beeline for her." When he got there, his Hungarian charm took effect. (His favorite definition of a Hungarian: "A man who goes into a revolving door behind you and comes out ahead...
During most of his life Von Karman lived with his sister Josephine (Pipo), who acted as his secretary and protector. When she died five years ago, his friends feared that he would never recover from the shock. He managed to make an adjustment, and in 1952, when he was 70, Von Karman became chairman of AGARD (Advisory Group for Aeronautical Research and Development), set up by NATO on his recommendation. Its job is to review advances in aeronautical science for application to the defense problems of the Western nations, and Von Karman, with his many languages, eminence and friendship with...