John H. McMasters

John H. McMasters (April 26, 1939 – February 13, 2008) was an aeronautical engineer notable for his contributions to aerodynamics and engineering education.

McMasters was born in Taft, California and fell in love with airplanes in 1943 when his uncle gave him a private “air show” in a Lockheed P-38 Lightning. After completing high school, he went on to earn BS and MS degrees from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1960 and 1962 and a PhD from Purdue University in 1975, all in Aeronautical Engineering.

After having completed his BS and MS on a ROTC scholarship, he entered the US Air Force as a 1st Lt Working at the US Air Force Special Weapons Center (later the Air Force Weapons Lab) at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico, he was given the opportunity to develop a guided missile eventually given the provisional designation ZAIM-68A Quetzalcoatl. In 1965 he left the US Air Force to attend Purdue University and work on his PhD. In 1971 and 1972 he taught at Arizona State University. As there were few jobs available at time in aerospace, he worked from 1972 to 1974 as a tent designer at Camp Trails in Phoenix Arizona, while at the same time working on his PhD dissertation. In 1975 he returned to Purdue to finish his PhD.

In 1976, having completed graduate school, he took a job working at Boeing Commercial Airplanes as a research aerodynamicist and worked there until his death. John became an Associate Technical Fellow at Boeing in 1995 and a Technical Fellow in 1996. Starting in 1994 he was a member of what has become the Boeing Company Offices level University Relations Process Council. In this capacity he was instrumental in establishing and conducting the Boeing-Welliver Faculty Summer Fellowship, Boeing Fellow on Campus, and Boeing Outstanding Educator Programs. He was also one of the original architects of the Boeing-initiated Industry-University-Government Roundtable for Enhancing Engineering Education (IUGREEE). Beginning in 1990, he also served as an Affiliate [Adjunct] Professor in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at the University of Washington and he was also a member of the External Advisory Board of the Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

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