Lloyd Herbert Back
February 13, 1933 - March 21, 2022
Lloyd passed away peacefully at home in Irvine, CA after a brief illness. His beloved and devoted wife Carol was at his side.
Born in San Francisco, CA, he was selected to the All- SF City Team playing shortstop for his varsity baseball team at Balboa High School during his junior year in 1950. After graduation he was pursued by several major league baseball teams but chose other employment opportunities. He served in the US Army from 1951 to 1955. Lloyd met Carol Peterson in Burlingame, CA and courted her for 4 years before they were married in 1955. They moved to Southern California in 1962 after Lloyd completed his PhD in Mechanical Engineering and Fluid Dynamics at UC Berkeley. Lloyd worked at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA until his retirement in 1992. His professional contributions spanned widely varying applications in science including rocket propulsion, heat transfer processes, helicopter rotor and rocket nozzle design. He was especially proud of his biomedical research in conjunction with the Cardiology Department at the USC School of Medicine and later work studying details of blood flow in human atherosclerotic coronary arteries and the effects of angioplasty. He received many career accolades and greatly appreciated the large number of collaborative scientists he worked with. He lectured at Caltech and USC Medical School, taught engineering courses at UCLA, and had 193 peer reviewed publications in prominent journals.
Lloyd and Carol spent 66 loving years together and had 3 children (Martin, Carla and Debra) and 7 grandchildren (Connor, Garrett, Sierra, Krystal, Nathaniel, Gwendolyn and Michael). The closeknit family unit includes daughter in law Barbara, and sons in law Tom and Lane. Family meant everything to Lloyd and all members valued time spent in his greatness. He was self-made, independent, proud and quietly led by example. He loved nature, travel and exploration, adventure, all sports, fishing, and sharing experiences and knowledge with family. We celebrate his full life and will miss him dearly.