Obituary

William Rees Sears, a member of the Cornell faculty from 1946 to 1974, died Oct. 12 in Tucson, Ariz. He was 89.

After receiving his B.S. degree from the University of Minnesota in 1934 and his Ph.D. from California Institute of Technology in 1938, Sears spent most of World War II as chief of aerodynamics and flight testing for Northrup Aircraft, helping to design the first flying wing and the P-61 "Black Widow" fighter. He later served in Germany in 1945, debriefing German engineers and scientists.

In 1946 he was invited to Cornell by S.C. Hollister, then dean of the College of Engineering, to create and become the first director of the Graduate School of Aeronautical Engineering, which in 1972 merged with the Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. Under his leadership the school achieved a worldwide reputation for excellence, attracting honors and awards both to Sears and the school. His most prestigious honor was the Daniel Guggenheim Medal for significant achievements in aviation, awarded in 1996. A collection of Sears memorabilia is on display on the first floor of Upson Hall.

He was a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and Mexico's Academia Nacional de Ingeniería. He was an honorary fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and was editor of the Journal of the Aeronautical Sciences from 1955 to 1963. In 1962 he was named the John Laporte Given Professor of Engineering. In 1963 he founded and became director of the Center for Applied Mathematics. In 1974 Sears joined the Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering at the University of Arizona. He became an emeritus professor there in 1978.

While at Cal Tech, Sears supervised training for private pilots and in the process learned to fly. He became an enthusiastic private pilot, logging some 8,000 hours over the years, and owned several planes, most recently a twin-engine Piper Commanche, which he regularly flew to meetings. His son, David, Cornell A.B. '64, MPA '66, Ph.D. '71, and daughter, Susan, are both pilots.

Other hobbies included squash and music. He worked his way through the University of Minnesota playing drums in dance bands and played recorder in musical ensembles at Cornell and Arizona.

Sears is survived by his wife, Mabel, his two children and two grandchildren.