Professor Thomas U. McElmurry

Yesterday, I learned that my very first Aero professor had passed away early last month. Professor McElmurry was a great professor. Aero201, i believe, was the class. This was our first taste of the aerospace world. I still have my model airplane that we built in that class. I still have the report of the airplane that i designed in that class. If i recall correctly, I was in the second to last class that he taught. I think there was one more class of students prior to him retiring. I was completely honored and privileged to be in the presence of this man. He had so many great stories to tell. Somewhere amongst his belongings is a book full of polaroid photographs. These photographs will contain each and every student he ever taught. That was his thing...at the beginning of the semester he'd pull out his camera and snap a few pictures of the class so that he'd be able to put a face with the names.
Below is the article that the Texas A&M Aerospace Department put together:

Thomas Uriel McElmurry

Aerospace engineering professor McElmurry remembered

Thomas Uriel McElmurry a visiting associate professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering for 13 years, passed away today (Nov. 3) at the age of 85. McElmurry, a retired lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Air Force, began his Air Force career at age 17 with the Army Air Force in Seward, Ak., eventually receiving flight training in Santa Maria, Calif., in 1942. After flying two tours of duty in World War II, he obtained a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Alabama and master’s degree in aeronautical engineering from the University of

Michigan. Remaining on activity military and as a test pilot, McElmurry was chief of the Operations and Training Branch of the USAF Experimental Flight Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base and an astronaut candidate in NASA Group 2, selected in

1961 for military astronaut class 1. He also was an instructor at the USAF Aerospace Research Pilot School, where he was involved with the NF104 space plane, and a test pilot at the Naval Weapons Center in California and at Holloman Air Force Base in

New Mexico. During his career with NASA, he was chief of flight crew operations in the Office of Manned Space Flight; chief of the Orbiter Atmospheric Flight Test Office; deputy manager of operations integration for the Space Shuttle Program; manager for operations integration for the Space Shuttle Program Office; and assistant for systems reliability and quality assurance for the Systems Division, Mission Operations. Upon retiring from NASA, he served 13 years on the Texas A&M aerospace engineering faculty. While at Texas A&M, he was the advisor to the student Aviation Association and the Corps of Cadets. In his spare time, McElmurry was a very active flight instructor and avid flyer.