|
Bob Kelly
“Things don’t always go the way you think they might---but that’s not all bad,” says Bob Kelly reflectively.
When Bob graduated from GHS he decided to become a patent lawyer. His idea was to get a degree in Electrical Engineering and then enroll in law school to get the LLD. It was a plan.
Ohio State University was his school of choice for the engineering degree. All went very well until …. he joined a fraternity.
During his second year of college Bob moved into the Frat House. His 22 hour student load each quarter and his Frat House lifestyle just did not mix. Down went the grades, in a nose dive.
“It was not going to work,” he thought. So Bob decided to take some time off and follow in his two brother’s footsteps by joining the service. He could then go to school on the GI Bill.
For the next 3 years, 9 months, 28 days, 4 hours and 35 seconds, (who’s counting) Bob toured Texas, Colorado, Okinawa and Montana courtesy of a travel pass provided by the United States Air Force. His service made him interested in Aviation. After discharge he headed back to OSU, this time he would study Aero Space Engineering.
When he went back to OSU the times had changed a lot with the Vietnam War. He found anti-war demonstrations everywhere. He was a little older and wiser and earned his AeroAstro Engineering Degree in 1969. Graduation was quickly followed by his acceptance of a job in California with Rockwell International in Los Angeles. Bob spent a good part of that time wind tunnel testing a model of the B-1 bomber in all of the major wind tunnels in the US.
“When Ed DeChant’s buddy, Jimmy Carter, canceled the B-1, I thought it would be a good time to move on to greener pastures,” Bob says. “I quit Rockwell and joined Northrop Aircraft (later to become Northrop Grumman) in 1980.”
Bob loved California and the California Beach Lifestyle It was a single guy’s paradise. “Why would anyone want to get married,” Bob thought.
He moved into the beach community. “All the hot girls lived in the first 4 blocks,” he said. “This was a Stew Zoo full of recently graduated airline stewardesses as well as pilots, FBI agents and a few of us engineers.”
Bob managed to stay single in LA for 9 years, until he met a United Airlines Hostesses named Leena. Leena was originally from Finland. She swept Bob literally off his feet. He gave up the single life forever and the couple recently celebrated their 32nd year together. The “Taming of Bob Kelly” by Leena Kelly might be a best seller.
Bob enrolled and received an MBA from Pepperdine University in 1984. He worked as a project engineer, systems engineer, and technical director on a number of stealth fighter and missile programs. In 1999, Northrop Grumman bought Ryan Aircraft in San Diego primarily because it built the Global Hawk unmanned air vehicle. Bob moved to San Diego with this “unmanned air vehicle” division in 2000 and before retiring in 2007, he had worked on three unmanned vehicle programs. Bob has been very fortunate to have been involved in the engineering of a number of state-of-the-art programs in his 38 years in aerospace.
“However, I flunked retirement," he says. "I was called upon to consult at Northrop Grumman in 2009,” Bob says. “I presently am working on the airworthiness certification of a German version of the Global Hawk called the Euro Hawk which was flown in a few weeks ago.(end of June)” See video of thw flight below. Our own Bob Kelly helped make that happen.
One of the real joys of Bob’s life was the coaching of soccer and the organizing and running of soccer tournaments in Los Angeles where daughter Erika was an active athlete. Bob also enjoys running and has run a number of half marathons in his 60’s. “That now has been put on hold with two tears in the meniscus in my right knee which were surgically removed in May,” he says. “Its still too early to tell how that may affect my running but I did sign up for the Roll and Roll Half Marathon in June 2011. You need to think positive!”
“Leena and I don’t travel as much as we did when she was flying. Times have changed a lot with the frequent flyer miles. We still plan more travel but flying a lot lower with a motor home when I finally do retire,” he adds.
In addition to attempting to keep up on Leena’s honey-do list (and failing), Bob works as a volunteer fire fighter in Escondido.
Erika is a graduate of USC, lives in LA, and is the marketing director for Younghollywood.com.
“We are still waiting for grandchildren! CORRECTION: Marriage and then grandchildren,” Bob quickly adds.
Check out the link below. This is Bob’s project, the one he came out of retirement to do.
Dear Joe (Concannon) and Ed
We finally got our first flight off. Two hours of flying but just went from Palmdale to Edwards AFB. Flight envelope expansion flights are next culminating in a flight to Germany next March or April. After that, I might just finally retire again.
Check the link out.
Bob
http://www.northropgrumman.com/videos/assets/EH_First_Flight_WMV9_Widescreen_640x360.wmv
|