Home Index
Brigadier General
Alan R. Klayton
Permanent Professor 1988–2008
Vice Dean of the Faculty 2000–2002
B.S., Lowell Technological Institute
M.S., Pennsylvania State University
Ph.D., Lehigh University
Alan Klayton, the Academy’s 53rd Permanent Professor, was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1944. He graduated from Lowell Technological Institute, Lowell, MA, in 1966 with High Honors and a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering. He was a Distinguished Graduate from Lowell Tech’s AFROTC program. He entered upon an educational delay and earned his Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Pennsylvania State University, University Park, in 1968. He then earned a PhD in Electrical Engineering from Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA, in 1971. Upon entry into the Air Force as a first lieutenant in 1971, he was assigned as a Project Engineer at the Rome Air Development Center, Griffiss AFB, NY. In August 1977 Al came to the Air Force Academy faculty as an Instructor in the Department of Electrical Engineering. In 1981 he was named the department’s Outstanding Military Educator and earned the academic rank of Tenure Associate Professor in 1982. In 1984 he joined the System Integration Office (SIO), Air Force Space Command, Peterson AFB, CO, serving as a Project Engineer and as the Executive Officer for the Chief of SIO. Al returned to the Department of Electrical Engineering faculty in 1986. He was appointed a Permanent Professor in 1988 and assigned as the Department Head. He directed the efforts to establish the Computer Engineering major effective with the Class of 2001 and to change the department’s name to the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering in 2006. During his tenure at the Academy, Al served as the Vice Dean of the Faculty from 2000 to 2002 before returning to again lead the Electrical Engineering Department. As an additional duty, he served as Engineering Division Chair, 2006–2008. He also served as an Accreditation Evaluator for the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology for eight years and as the Academy liaison to a local school district. Al was promoted to brigadier general and retired in 2008.
Al returned to the Academy in 2009 to serve for a year as the Philip J. Erdle Chair in Engineering Science for the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Since 2010 he has continued to teach in the Department as needed to fill faculty vacancies. Al continued to serve higher education and the engineering profession as an ABET accreditation evaluator for four years after his retirement from the Air Force. He is currently a Board Member on the Academy School District 20 Educational Foundation. The department annually awards the Brigadier General Alan R. Klayton Design Excellence Award to the individual cadet or team that best exemplifies outstanding design techniques and execution as well as innovation and success in completing a complex electrical or computer system project.