SANTA BARBARA, Calif., Sept. 22 (UPI) -- Dean Everett Wooldridge, 93, co-founder of aerospace giant TRW Inc., has died of pneumonia in a Santa Barbara, Calif., hospital.
Wooldridge helped develop the nation's intercontinental ballistic missile program, the Los Angeles Times said Friday. In retirement, he became a self-educated neurology expert, publishing two books -- "The Machinery of the Brain" and "The Machinery of Life" -- that were on many graduate schools' required reading lists.
Wooldridge was best known for partnering with Simon Ramo to create TRW, which revolutionized missile technology and helped hasten the United States' high-tech weapons development early in the Cold War, the Times said.
Born in Chickasha, Okla., Wooldridge graduated from high school at 14, received a master's degree from the University of Oklahoma at 20 and a doctorate in physics from Caltech at 23.
Wooldridge worked at Bell Laboratories in New York before joining Ramo, a Caltech classmate, at Hughes Aircraft Co. Wooldridge and Ramo left Hughes to form their own company, which later became TRW.
Helene Detweiler, Wooldridge's wife, died in 2001. Wooldridge is survived by sons James of Basking Ridge, N.J., and Dean E. Wooldridge Jr. of Las Vegas; daughter Anna Lou Eklof, Bailey, Colo.; and three grandchildren.
