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This is the 27th volume of Memorial Tributes compiled by the National Academy of Engineering as a personal remembrance of the lives and outstanding achievements of its members and international members. These volumes are intended to stand as an enduring record of the many contributions of engineers and engineering to the benefit of humankind. In most cases, the authors of the tributes are contemporaries or colleagues who had personal knowledge of the interests and the engineering accomplishments of the deceased. Through its members and international members, the Academy carries ...
This is the 27th volume of Memorial Tributes compiled by the National Academy of Engineering as a personal remembrance of the lives and outstanding achievements of its members and international members. These volumes are intended to stand as an enduring record of the many contributions of engineers and engineering to the benefit of humankind. In most cases, the authors of the tributes are contemporaries or colleagues who had personal knowledge of the interests and the engineering accomplishments of the deceased. Through its members and international members, the Academy carries out the responsibilities for which it was established in 1964.
Under the charter of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering was formed as a parallel organization of outstanding engineers. Members are elected on the basis of significant contributions to engineering theory and practice and to the literature of engineering or on the basis of demonstrated unusual accomplishments in the pioneering of new and developing fields of technology. The National Academies share a responsibility to advise the federal government on matters of science and technology. The expertise and credibility that the National Academy of Engineering brings to that task stem directly from the abilities, interests, and achievements of our members and international members, our colleagues and friends, whose special gifts we remember in this book.
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BY JOHN J. TRACY
DONALD R. KOZLOWSKI, arguably one of the best aerospace defense program managers in history and an executive at the McDonnell Douglas Corporation, died on June 2, 2015, in Wildwood, Missouri, at age 77.
Don was born on Dec. 5, 1937, in St. Louis, Missouri, to Leo W. and Dorothy R. (Adams) Kozlowski. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from St. Louis University in 1959. Shortly after graduation he married Patricia A. Halveland on Nov. 24, 1960. They were married for 54 years until his death. Together, they had three daughters — Karen A. Sheeley (1961), Kathleen P. Klipfel (1963), and Christine M. Niehaus (1964). While raising his young family and working, he returned to school and earned his master’s degree in electrical engineering from Washington University in St. Louis.
Don started his engineering career at McDonnell Aircraft Corporation in St. Louis in 1959. By 1962, he had already been promoted to senior engineer. He briefly left the McDonnell family of companies between 1962 and 1965, when he worked for the Electronic Specialty Company as a manager of program development and the Aerospace Systems Corporation, where he served as a vice president. He returned to McDonnell Douglas in 1965, where he served in roles of increasing responsibility through his retirement. Initially, he served in functional engineering management roles, including electronics group manager, electronics section chief, and electronics branch chief. He performed well in those positions and earned a number of key defense program leadership roles.
In 1982 he was named chief program engineer of the Advanced F-15 program, leading to the development of the U.S. Air Force F-15E Eagle multirole strike fighter. He later was named program manager of the Advanced Tactical Fighter, developed for the U.S. Air Force, and then vice president and general manager of the YF-23 program. In 1991, he served as the vice president and general manager of the U.S. Navy F/A-18C/D Hornet fighter/attack aircraft program. In 1992 he was named vice president and general manager of the NASA High Speed Civil Transport Program.
The crowning achievement of Don’s career began in 1993 and ran through 1997 with his assignment as senior vice president of the C-17 program and of the Military Transport Aircraft unit that contained C-17. In this role, he served as the C-17 program manager responsible for the business, technical, and production operations of the C-17 Globemaster III transport program. The C-17 Globemaster III, for which Don was responsible, provided strategic airlift capability never before possible. It carried some 169,000 pounds of outsize or oversized cargo, such as an Abrams tank or three Apache helicopters, to or from small, austere runways. It has delivered cargo to harsh terrain in every worldwide operation since the 1990s.
Before Don assumed responsibility for the program it was considered by Congress to be a white elephant, with cost overruns and program delays being the norm. Cancellation for poor performance was a distinct possibility. Don was the leader who turned the C-17 program around. The actions he took made a major impact on the engineering design, production, business, and program management aspects of the program. Through his leadership, the unit cost of the aircraft dropped in half, while reliability and maintainability improved dramatically. Two specific examples of his impact were the redesign of the complex engine nacelles and the landing gear pods, reducing parts, cutting manufacturing costs, maintaining performance, and significantly increasing reliability and maintainability. The improvements he drove were implemented within the delivery of the first 30 aircraft. His engineering leadership set a standard of excellence and commitment to quality that endured for the life of the production program. The resulting C-17 program was awarded the U.S. 1999 Malcolm Baldridge Quality Award.
Don was very active professionally as a fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and a member of the U.S. Air Force Association, the Navy League, the American Defense Preparedness Association, and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. In addition, from 1975 to 1977, he took leave from McDonnell Douglas and served the U.S. Air Force as director of offensive air support mission analysis, for which he received the Meritorious Civilian Service Medal from the U.S. Air Force.
Don was a great engineer who left his fingerprints on three of the most important defense aviation programs in history: the F/A-18, the F-15, and the C-17. The goal of most aerospace engineers was to just be able to work on one of these programs. Don not only worked on all three of them, but also led them. In the case of C-17, Don led the program from the brink of extinction to being an award-winning program that is emulated by all.