William T Kehrer

Born on August 27, 1922 to Franklin Pierce and Olive Kehrer in Watertown, South Dakota, Bill passed away on January 1, 2012 of natural causes. Raised in Sioux Falls, SD with his brother Richard and two sisters, Marie and Frances Ann. Graduated from Washington High School in Sioux Falls in 1940. In 1941, at age 19, he moved from home to Washington D.C. where he entered college at Benjamin Franklin University and worked for the FBI in a clerical capacity. Shortly after Pearl Harbor he entered the U.S. Navy pilot training program and became a naval officer and carrier-based fighter pilot, flying the famed F4U Corsair fighter/bomber aircraft. He remained on active status until 1947, when he changed to active reserve flying status in order to enter Aeronautical Engineering School at the University of Minnesota. It was at a Sigma Chi fraternity party that he met the love of his life and bride-to-be, Lucille Ruth George, a legal secretary from South St. Paul. They were married on September 1, 1949.

After graduation in 1950 he and Lucille moved to Long Beach, California where he joined Douglas Aircraft Company working in design engineering. Finding this work unchallenging, they moved to Columbus, Ohio in 1951 where he went to work for North American Aviation, first in Columbus and later in Los Angeles. He participated in the design, building and flight testing of several high performance supersonic military fighters and bombers, becoming a specialist in aerodynamic stability and control analyses. During his 12 years at North American he acquired extensive experience in this complex field of engineering, participating in the entire aircraft design cycle from initial theoretical analysis through wind tunnel testing, engineering final design, building and flight test. Approached by Boeing to come to Seattle to work on the Boeing supersonic transport team, and intrigued by the beautiful Pacific Northwest, he accepted the Boeing assignment as a stability and control specialist and moved to Bellevue, Washington with his wife and three small children in 1962.

After joining the Boeing SST engineering design team, he applied his knowledge and experience to solving the various problems plaguing the SST design, including problems with excessive weight, systems complexity, and poor performance. With his small team of aerodynamicists he proved to management the need to redirect the entire engineering effort, leading to the development of a highly-advanced aircraft configuration that met all design requirements for flight qualities, weight, safety, performance, noise and economics. His work on that program led to his promotion to Chief of the 100-man aerodynamic staff.

Subsequent Boeing assignments included Chief Engineer, Technology, for the Boeing STOL program, Chief of Stability and Control Staff for military designs, and Manager for Flight Control Systems Technology for the Commercial Aircraft Division. During his Boeing years he authored and presented many technical papers for various international aircraft symposiums. These included the NATO Research Group (Agard) for Advanced Aircraft Design, The International Council for Aeronautical Sciences, the American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics, and the Society for Automotive Engineering. These symposiums presented the opportunity for foreign travel, and it was Italy that he and his wife came to love, returning to visit after his retirement from Boeing in 1984.

Bill and his family greatly enjoyed the Pacific Northwest area with its opportunities for hiking, snow and water skiing, biking and exploration. Living here also provided him close access to other great places he loved, including Sun Valley, Whistler Mountain, Big White in the Canadian Okanagan, and Lake Louise, Canada.

The greatest fun he ever had was flying, and he kept active in civilian flying, holding an instrument-rated commercial pilot’s license. He also continued to practice his skills in aerobatic flying, to his wife’s dismay but his children’s delight, who often went up with dad but occasionally lost their stomach afterward.

Bill often said that the second smartest thing he ever did was to move his family to the beautiful Pacific Northwest. Of course, the smartest thing he ever did was to ask Lucille to marry him back in 1949….. For him, it was pretty much love at first sight when he saw her from across the room at that night’s Sigma Chi party. He reiterated this often throughout his life and especially during his final days.

Bill is survived by his wife Lucille Kehrer, his children Constance Ann Kehrer, Thomas William Kehrer, and Kathleen Kehrer Symbol, and his grandchildren David William Sroufe, Tristan Ronald Byrne, Meghan Elizabeth Kehrer, and Erin Rose Kehrer. A grave-side funeral service will be held on Monday, January 9, 2012 at 10:30 am at SUNSET HILLS FUNERAL HOME, 1215 145th PL SE, Bellevue.

Arrangements under the direction of Sunset Hills Funeral Home, Bellevue, WA.