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Brigadier General
Robert R. Lochry
Permanent Professor 1970–1985
B.S., United States Military Academy
M.S., Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles
Bob Lochry, the Academy’s 26th Permanent Professor, was born in 1922 in Salt Lake City, Utah. He earned his commercial pilot license while attending Modesto Junior College, CA, and at the start of WWII he entered the United States Military Academy, graduating in 1945. He soon became a fighter pilot flying P-47s and P-51s in the Philippines. In 1947 he transferred to fly the P-80 in the first jet unit in the Pacific; his first jet flight was solo because there were no two-seat jet trainers at that time. Returning from overseas in 1948, Bob was a Test Pilot at Wright-Patterson AFB, OH, where he “flew ‘really weird’ airplanes under almost every combination of emergency situations.” He was then selected for the West Point faculty and sent to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY, where he earned his Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1950. He taught at West Point for three years after which he was again assigned to Wright-Patterson AFB for five years, 1953–1958, as a Project Director and Weapons System Program Manager for new fighter aircraft, including the tri-sonic XF-103, the YF-107, and the F-108. After a year at Air Command and Staff College, Maxwell AFB, AL, he was assigned in 1959 to the Air Force Space and Missile Systems Office in Los Angeles working on orbital intercept technologies and, later, classified satellite systems. He attended UCLA from 1962 to 1965, earning his PhD with three majors: Astrodynamics, Computer Science, and Research Management. In 1965 he joined the Academy’s Department of Engineering Mechanics and moved the next year to the Department of Astronautics and Computer Science. From 1967 to 1969, Bob was assigned to the 14th Aerospace Force (the forerunner of Air Force Space Command), serving for a year in Colorado Springs as Assistant Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations, then as Commander of the Space Surveillance Squadron at Shemya, AK. He next moved to the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Pentagon, Washington, DC, with duty as Director of Space Technology. He was selected in 1970 as Permanent Professor and appointed Head of the Department of Mathematical Sciences. In that position, he led the largest academic department to many insightful accomplishments, including early development of computer-aided instruction and individual mastery learning. Perhaps Bob’s chief contribution was the cadet major in Operations Research; his research established the need for the new interdisciplinary major, and his efforts led to its implementation as a joint venture between three departments. He spent 1978–1980 on military sabbatical at the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe Technical Center, The Hague, Netherlands. Bob Lochry was a leader across the institution’s full spectrum. He was promoted and retired in 1985, after serving in uniform for 44 years.
Update (2020): Bob Lochry died in 2015 and is buried in the U.S. Military Academy Cemetery.