Dr. Theodore von Karman, one of the world’s leading physicists and topmost aeronautical engineer, the son of a Jewish philosophy professor in Hungary, died last night at Aachen, near here. He was 81. His father, Prof. Maurice von Karman, of Budapest, a member of the Hungarian Government Ministry of Education in 1907, inspired Hungarian Jewish communities to establish their own high schools.
Theodore von Karman became a United States citizen in 1936 and, through his work on jet propulsion and rocketry, became known as “the father of the supersonic age. ” He was awarded the first U.S. National Medal of Science by President Kennedy last February. He returned to Germany after the war and established one of Europe’s most celebrated research centers, at Aachen, He was a member of the NATO Advisory Council.
Passover may be over, but your chance to support independent Jewish journalism isn't. Help JTA keep reporting the stories that define our era.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
