ARCHIE VICKERS

Archie Daniel Vickers, Jr., beloved family man, aerospace systems engineer, and champion athlete, passed away peacefully on June 13 in Panama City, Florida, at home in the loving care of his daughter Laura and grandson Wiley.

He was born 86 years ago in Tallahassee, and graduated from Leon High School in 1950. During his senior year, he finished third in the Class A long jump at the state track meet.

In 1955, he graduated from the University of Florida with a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering. The previous year, he broke the Florida Relays meet record and set multiple school records in the long jump, won Southeastern Conference championships in the long jump and 440 relay, and placed eighth in the long jump at the National Collegiate Athletic Association outdoor championships.

For most of his engineering career, he worked for TRW at Norton Air Force Base in San Bernardino, California. There he supported and led development, design, testing, deployment, and operation of the Minuteman, Peacekeeper, and Small ICBM weapon systems. He developed, practiced, and taught the art and science of system requirements analysis and earned recognition as one of the nation's foremost experts in this method, which is frequently cited as one of the principal reasons for the remarkable technical and schedule success achieved in our nation's intercontinental ballistic missile programs.

He was preceded in death by his parents Archie and Myrtle, daughter Jennifer, wife Dorothy, wife Harriett, and brother James. He is survived by his sister Ellen Allemore, son John and his wife Lorraine, daughter Laura, son David, daughter Melanie and her husband Matt Lyons, son Robert Dryden and his wife Brenda, son Derek Dryden and his wife Susan, son Wesley Dryden, eight grandchildren, and six great-grandchildren.

His love of family, constant encouragement, friendship, kindness, mentoring, unflagging support, and sense of humor will be forever cherished by his family, friends, and neighbors.

A celebration of his life will be held at 11:00 AM on August 3 at The Mission Inn, 3649 Mission Inn Avenue, Riverside, CA. In lieu of flowers, please donate to the Alzheimer's Association (http://alz.org).