Rocket scientist,
inventor, classic car enthusiast, green thumb, loving husband and father, Robert
C Schindler of Rancho Murieta CA died on October 9 at his home with his family
at his side. He was born on April 5 1928
in Buffalo NY, one of identical twin brothers (Robert
and Richard), to Carl Joseph and Marion Tangelder Schindler. He was 81.Mr. Schindler was
very unassuming and few were aware of the breadth of his pursuits and the scope
of his accomplishments.
Rocket
Designer and Inventor
Bob was a major contributor to the design and
development of liquid propellant rocket engines (at Bell Aircraft (Niagara Falls NY) and at
Aerojet (Rancho Cordova CA)).
During his 50 year career, he was responsible for the design of
monopropellant and bipropellant rocket engines and components in thrust classes
from 5 to 1.5 million pounds using cryogenic, earth storable, space storable,
gel and halogen propellants.
Bob’s career began at Bell Aircraft, starting in 1950. While at Bell, he made significant design
contributions to the Nike-AJAX missile, the Rascal engine and the engine used
in the B-58 powered pod. He also
provided design solutions for the Hustler and Discoverer/Agena space engine
(which were applied to subsequent engines).
He supported the design of the Bell 8096 engine -
variations of which were used on Thor, Atlas, and Titan launch vehicles as well
as on spy satellites and the two Mariner Mars probes. It was at Bell Aircraft that Schindler
conceived and developed the straight-drilled aluminum nozzle concept, in which
regenerative cooling passages in a converging/diverging nozzle could be formed
from straight-drilled holes arranged in a circle, but drilled at an
angle. This approach was used with great success on the aluminum nozzle
of the Bell
8000-series rocket engine.
In 1962, Bob moved his family out to California and joined the Aerojet
Corporation. He remained at Aerojet
until his retirement in 1993. While at
Aerojet, he served as design engineer, engineering supervisor, program manager,
and Chief Engineer for Engineering, Test, and Research. He was a key contributor to Aerojet missile
defense systems efforts and in 1987 he was awarded the Aerojet RB Young Award
for Technical Excellence. He was named
(with colleagues) on two patents. These
contributions were subsequently used on a number of Aerojet products, most
notably the Space Shuttle Orbit Maneuvering (OMS) Engine, which is still in use
today.
After his retirement he served as consultant to Aerojet and to Stone
Engineering (of Huntsville AL).
In 1999 he was asked to serve as technical advisor to the NASA Advisory
Council Task Force’s Proton Investigation Working Group which conducted
meetings in Russia
focused on the findings of the Russian investigation of two Proton Launch
failures. His contributions were
recognized by USAF (ret) Lt. Gen. Thomas Stafford USAF (Task Force chair and
former Gemini, Apollo and Apollo-Soyuz astronaut). The resultant remediation of engine design
and service procedures resulted in the successful launch of the ISS
(International Space Station) Service Module on the Russian Proton launch
vehicle.
Letters, Travel
and Technology
Throughout his
life, he appreciated automobiles (especially of British design) and owned
several including an early Lagonda, a 1954 MG TF, two Jaguars, and two
Alvis. He often drove brides to weddings
in his 1937 Alvis Speed 25 and enjoyed participating in Rancho Murieta
Independence Day parades.He and his wife
Rita enjoyed travel. During the course
of their 55 year marriage, they visited England,
Ireland, Scotland, France,
Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg,
Italy, Canada, Mexico,
Guatemala, Costa Rica and New Zealand. Additionally, in a professional capacity, he
visited Moscow, Korolyov and Voronezh, Russia.
Bob had an active
retirement, participating in a wide variety of different activities. His home in Rancho Murieta, which he designed
himself, reflected his appreciation of the style and features of French country
homes that he visited with Rita. One of his particular passions was
gardening. He created a series of
beautiful and ever-expanding gardens around his Rancho Murieta home, and these reflected
his appreciation of European gardens visited during his travels.
As for arts and
letters, Bob served for a time as a volunteer docent at the Crocker Art Museum
(Sacramento CA). He kept a personal
library with extensive selections (all of which he read) on World War II,
political thought, recent global conflict, American history (especially the
founding era), democracy, discovery, technology, invention, war, science,
aircraft and space travel. He possessed
an interesting collection of fantasy and science fiction (including some very
early works). He also studied classical
literature and great works, philosophy and religious thought. His collection included materials on travel
and travel destinations, gardening and the environment, and automobiles
(classic and new).He was active in
the Roman Catholic Church, most recently serving in a number of volunteer
capacities at St. Vincent De Paul Church in Rancho Murieta CA.
Family and
Friends
Bob is
survived by his wife (of 55 years) Rita, his three daughters (Carla Bossard and
Paula Schindler of Huntsville AL
and Sara Schindler of Placentia
CA) and their families, and also
by his six grandchildren. Bob was the eldest sibling in his
family. He is survived by his twin
brother and his other brother and sisters.He was appreciated as a generous and
faithful friend. His death is mourned by
family, friends and neighbors.
On a personal note, I had the great pleasure
of working with Bob professionally during the first years of my professional career,
when I joined Aerojet in 1986. At that
time, Bob was serving as Chief Engineer for Engineering, Test, and
Research. I found him to be an
extraordinarily gifted designer, engineer, and manager, and very approachable. One of the things I most appreciated about
Bob was his skill at the understatement, of understanding subtlety and nuance. Yet he could very quickly cut the heart of a
design issue, a skill which he brought to bear most notably when investigating the causes of two Proton Launch failures
while working with NASA’s advisory council task force.
Bob was also my father-in-law, and became so
when I married Carla in 1991. We came to
know each other very well during the more than twenty years of our association,
and I’m the better man for it.
Bob told me that he considered himself a
rocket designer, and not a “rocket scientist”, and that this, for him, was an
important distinction. He also told me
that in looking into the future, he saw that there were two things that he
considered particularly critical for the continued survival of mankind, and
those two things were human spaceflight, and nuclear energy. Over the years, I’ve come to better
understand the wisdom of that observation.
Our
civilization moves forward from the continuous contributions of many
individuals, each adding some portion of their own, individual creativity, and
knowledge to the aggregate. And it is
the sum of these contributions that will make it possible for our civilization’s
continued survival and our eventual expansion off of the Earth’s surface and out
into space, and to continue to make beauty and good. I think Bob would be pleased to know that he
had been able to make significant and sustained contributions to the betterment
of mankind.