ROBERT A. DUFFY

1921 - 2015

Duffy, Robert A. Retired President and CEO of Draper Laboratory, died Feb. 4, 2015, at the age of 93 years. Duffy graduated from the U.S. Army Officer Candidate School in 1942 and the Army Information School in 1947 before earning his B.S. in aeronautical engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology in 1951. He served in the Panama Canal Zone, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Sicily, Italy, and Vietnam, and retired from the Air Force in 1971 as vice commander of the Air Force Space and Missile Systems Organization. He received the Legion of Merit, Army Commendation Medal, the Distinguished Unit Citation Emblem with oak leaf cluster, and the Distinguished Service Medal. After retiring from the military, Duffy joined Draper in 1971 as Vice President, and became its first president and CEO in 1973 when the lab separated from MIT to become a not-for-profit corporation. In 1976, Duffy presided over the construction of a single facility that accommodated Draper staff who had been working in 14 buildings across Cambridge. The building was renamed for him in 1992. During Duffy's tenure as president, the lab made many significant contributions to the military's strategic missile fleet and began development of its micro-mechanical technology. Duffy also served on a number of advisory panels for NASA and the national security community. He received honors including the 1971 Gen. Thomas D. White U.S. Air Force Space Trophy from the National Geographic Society, given annually for outstanding contribution to American aerospace progress. Other awards included the Thomas L. Thurlow Award from the Institute of Navigation (ION) for work in the application of inertial guidance equipment to military vehicles. He was inducted into the Georgia Institute of Technology Engineering Hall of Fame in 1995. Duffy's first wife, Elizabeth Orr, predeceased him, as did two of their children: Marian Orr and Barclay Robert. He is survived by their children Michael Gordon, Judith Elizabeth, and Patricia Archer, as well as four grandchildren. He is also survived by his second wife, Jenifer Pickett, as well as her children: Laurie Moskowitz Corrois, Diane Lee Pickett, Carol Anne Belding, Mark Henry Pickett, and William Davis Pickett. He is also survived by her nineteen grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren. A Celebration of Life will be held on Sunday, Feb. 22, at 4 p.m. at Hodges Funeral Home in Naples, Fla. Burial will take place at Arlington National Cemetery at a later date. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to Avow Hospice of Naples in Duffy's memory (see http://avowhospice.org/).