Robert Haskins

Robert Haskins died on Monday, April 17, 2006, at 88 years of age. Robert Haskins was a native Richmonder and attended St. Christopher's School. He received a degree in Physics from Princeton University in 1935. He went on to receive an M.S. in Aeronautical Instrumentation from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. At Sperry Gyroscope Company, where he worked as a project engineer, Robert Haskins developed a flight instrument that is standard on aircraft today. This instrument displays an aircraft's orientation during flight maneuvers. As a Naval officer, Robert Haskins was assigned to the Bombing and Torpedo Section of the Bureau of Aeronautics. He worked on high priority projects including defense against Kamikaze attack. From 1946 to 1973, he founded and managed a number of companies whose operations included Air Force development projects which were forerunners of inertial navigation, automated instrumentation cameras and digital computer systems for simulation and analysis, among other things. He later went into venture capital through the management of a holding company. A successful scientist and entrepreneur and owner of more than a dozen patents, Robert Haskins had a lifelong passion for flight, food and his family, enjoying each immensely. A prankster at heart and lover of life, he was game for adventure: racing power boats, skydiving off mountains and flying his Cessna 310. He was preceded in death by his wife, Sarah Tanner Haskins. He is survived by his daughter, Casa H. Bacot; three granddaughters, Sarah H. Gibson, Dana G. Longenderfer and Tanner Haskins Gibson; a grandson, Langhorne Gibson III; four great-granddaughters, Ella, Sally, Merritt and Clare; and four great-grandsons, Coleman, Jack, DeWolf and Lang. A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. on Thursday, April 20, at St. Stephen's Episcopal Church. Memorial contributions may be made to St. Christopher's School in Richmond, Virginia.