Robert ‘Bob’ Skelton, Ph.D

March 21, 1938 - February 15, 2023

FAIRHOPE, AL —

Dr. Robert E. Skelton, 84, died February 15, 2023 in Fairhope, AL surrounded by his family. He is survived by his wife Judy, daughter Leigh, sons Jeff, Buzz, and David, nine grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren.

His work was integral to the control systems on Apollo, Skylab, the Space Shuttle, and the Hubble telescope. As a worldrenowned professor who wrote four textbooks and over 200 journal articles, he received numerous awards across many different engineering disciplines in Civil, Electrical, Aeronautical and Astronautical, and Mechanical Engineering. He was inducted into the National Academy of Engineering in 2012, our nation’s highest civilian scientist award.

After 22 years at Purdue University, he spent 10 years at UCSD as Director of the Structural Systems and Control laboratory creating a world-leading program in Dynamics and Control, followed by seven years as a Fellow and Distinguished Research Professor at Texas A&M University. He was a Life-Fellow of IEEE and a Fellow of both AIAA and AAS. A visionary in interdisciplinary collaboration across engineering fields, he is best known for his pioneering work engineering Tensegrity structures.

He was passionate about skiing, tennis, hiking mountains all over the world, and how the mind learns. A humble and gracious man who valued listening over talking, learning over teaching, experiences over things, and family and faith above all.

A Memorial Service will be held at Fairhope United Methodist Church, Fairhope, AL on Saturday, February 25, at 1 pm. Search obits.al.com, Mobile Register for details.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be sent to the Texas A&M Foundation, 401 George Bush Drive, College Station, TX 77840. Please designate Professor Robert “Bob” Skelton Memorial Award.