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Brigadier General
Roland E. Thomas
Permanent Professor 1964–1979
B.S., New Mexico State University
M.S., Stanford University
Ph.D., University of Illinois
Ron Thomas, the Academy’s 14th Permanent Professor, was born in Austin, Texas, in 1930. He graduated from New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, in 1951 with a Bachelor’s degree in Agricultural Engineering and again in 1952 with a Bachelor’s in Electrical Engineering as well as an AFROTC commission. He was first assigned to Stanford University, earning his Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering in 1953. He next was assigned to Wright-Patterson AFB, OH, as a Project Engineer working on design, test, and analysis of aircraft electrical power systems and flight simulators. In 1957 Ron was sent as a student to the University of Illinois, Urbana, where he earned his PhD in Electrical Engineering in 1959. He then joined the Academy as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Astronautics. In 1964 he was appointed a Permanent Professor. In 1965 Ron was appointed the Acting Head of the Department of Astronautics, and he co-authored the department’s textbook, Introduction to Elementary Astronautics. In 1966 Ron became the Head of the Department of Electrical Engineering. Over the next few years, he was instrumental in the Academy becoming the first service academy to have its five engineering degrees accredited by the Engineers’ Council for Professional Development (ECPD, now the ABET). Beginning in 1972 he served many years as a Program Evaluator and Team Lead for the ECPD and ABET. In 1970 Ron co-authored a two-volume textbook Signals and Systems: An Introduction to Electrical Engineering, which became the foundation for many subsequent editions. He also published numerous peer-reviewed journal papers. Ron was a curriculum innovator, establishing courses with comprehensive laboratory exercises that provided learning opportunities well beyond those found at most universities. He was an advisor to the Vietnamese National Military Academy, publishing a curriculum evaluation report in 1968 (with P.J. Erdle). Ron led a vigorous department research program supporting the Air Force Weapons Laboratory and the Rome Air Development Center. In 1970, during the Vietnam War, he personally led an investigation of the fire control system for the AC-130A Gunship in Thailand. Using field test results, he made on-the-spot modifications that created extraordinary increases in mission lethality. Ron was promoted to brigadier general upon his retirement in 1979.
After retirement, Ron worked for Motorola’s Government Electronics Division, Mission Research Corporation, and Kaman Sciences. In 1985 he founded an independent engineering consulting company. Ron continued his scholarly pursuits by writing the textbook Circuits and Signals: An Introduction to Linear and Interface Circuits with Albert Rosa in 1984. He continued as an ABET Program Evaluator and served on the Engineering Accreditation Commission of ABET, 1980–1985; in 1992 he was honored as an ABET Fellow. In 1994 he co-authored with Rosa and G. Toussaint the popular text The Analysis and Design of Linear Circuits, now in its 8th edition. Ron’s leadership in improving the cadet educational process is honored each year when the USAFA Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering awards the Brigadier General Roland E. Thomas Award to a faculty member for outstanding contributions to cadet education.
Update (2020): Ron Thomas died in 2019 and is buried in the Air Force Academy Cemetery.