Fred Eastman, 102, created tool to gauge wind-tunnel forces

When Fred Eastman invented one of the most important tools for measuring wind-tunnel forces, he declined to patent the device. He said he wanted it to be widely available to engineers everywhere.

Emeritus Professor Eastman, co-founder of the University of Washington's aeronautical-engineering department, cared greatly about his profession and found many ways to show it, said those who knew him.

"He was a very generous man," said Adam Bruckner, current chairman of the UW department. "Other tunnels did adapt his technique. It was a very innovative and brilliant approach in measuring the forces acting on wind-tunnel models."

Professor Eastman, who taught at the UW for 41 years, died Saturday in Medford, Ore., where he had lived for the past 23 years. He was 102.

The electromagnetic balance system that he invented for the UW's Kirsten Wind Tunnel is important because it helps determine how an airplane will perform under different wind forces — factors such as lift, drag, pitch, roll and yaw, Bruckner said. Professor Eastman also developed the "flexure pivot," which helps separate the forces to be measured as accurately as possible.

But Professor Eastman was also known by generations of aeronautical-engineering students for his demanding expectations and great fairness.

"He was just an excellent instructor," said Joe Sutter, who was instrumental in the development of the Boeing 747. "He could really stimulate you to do some deep thinking on a subject."

In a visit to Seattle last year, Professor Eastman toured the UW's Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, as it is now known, then attended an awards banquet at The Museum of Flight.

"As the word spread that he was there, a long line of people formed to pay their respects. They were absolutely thrilled to see him," Bruckner said.

Fred Scoville Eastman was born in Seattle in 1904 and grew up on Magnolia Bluff, the son of a real-estate developer. He graduated from Queen Anne High School, then the UW. He earned a master's degree in engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

He returned to the UW to teach, and in 1929 was one of four founders of the UW department of aeronautical engineering. He served as department chairman from 1946 to 1952 and retired in 1970. In 1986, he received the Museum of Flight's Pathfinder Award, which recognizes pioneers in aeronautics.

Professor Eastman raised his family in the University District, and he greatly enjoyed a summer cottage on Juanita Bay that was once owned by his mother, said his son James, of Cotuit, Mass. Professor Eastman took his family camping and hiking in the Cascades and also often hiked with his brother, Austin Eastman, who was chairman of the UW Department of Electrical Engineering.

"He loved studying the [government wilderness] maps," James Eastman said. "He was always laying out a map of some lake or low peak for a hiking route."

Professor Eastman's son attributed his father's long life largely to a love of walking. Even in his older years, he continued to walk every day around the retirement village and in the mountains. "He would get out every day," James Eastman said.

He kept his mind very active, too. In retirement, he researched a moveable wing as a possible propulsion system for low-speed flight, but the project didn't advance because of so much interest in jet propulsion, his son said.

Professor Eastman's first wife, the former Mary Murdock, died in the early 1970s. He later married the former Louise Stratton and lived with her in California and Oregon until her death several years ago. The couple loved to travel, driving cross country several times, James Eastman said.

In addition to his son James, he is survived by three grandchildren, Carol Theil of Chagrin, Ohio, Linda Field of New York City, and Jay Eastman of Newton, Mass.; and four great-grandchildren. A daughter, Margaret, died in 1954.

At his request, no services were planned. Memorial gifts may be sent to the Rogue Valley Manor Assistance Fund, 1200 Mira Mar Ave., Medford, OR 97504.

Warren King: 206-464-2247 or wking@seattletimes.com