About Robert B. Oetting

BSME '55, Missouri S&T
MS Aeronautical Engineering '57, Purdue University
PhD Mechanical Engineering '64, University of Maryland

Bob (Dr. Oetting) grew up in Raytown, a suburb of Kansas City. When the time came for college, he journeyed to Rolla and attended MSM, earning a BS in ME in June 1955. That Summer, he worked at the Allison Division of GMC in Indianapolis, IN. Allison was manufacturing jet engines and gas turbine-shaft engines. Bob was a test stand engineer, proof testing gas turbine- shaft engines used on Navy seaplanes.

In the fall of 1955, he went to Purdue University to begin work on an MS degree in Aeronautical Engineering. During his two years at Purdue, he was a graduate teaching assistant. Upon completing the MS degree in Aeronautical Engineering in the spring of 1957, he spent a short time on active duty with the US Navy before returning to Rolla (for the second time), where he joined the ME faculty as an instructor.

In June 1959, Bob left for a summer job at the US Navy Ordinance Laboratory in Maryland, near Washington, DC. His plan to return to Rolla and MSM at the end of the summer changed when he met a lovely young lady, Tommie Ruth Yost.

In the fall of 1959, Bob joined the Mechanical Engineering faculty at the University of Maryland as an Instructor. In addition to teaching, he worked on the degree requirements to attain a PhD. By the way, Bob and Tommie Ruth were married in the spring of 1960. In the late fall of 1964, he completed the requirements for a PhD in Mechanical Engineering with a minor in Aeronautical Engineering.

Bob and Tommie Ruth, with 1 and 2/3 children, returned to Rolla in the fall of 1964 for the third time, but that time to join the UMR faculty of Mechanical Engineering (Aerospace Engineering was added some years later). This time, he stayed and began a 31-year career as Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, engaged in both teaching and research.

In addition to numerous publications in technical journals, Dr. Oetting was active in professional societies. Noteworthy among the groups was the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, where he achieved recognition as an Associate Fellow in 1981. He assisted the undergraduate AE students in establishing a chapter of Sigma Gamma Tau, the AE scholastic honor society. His involvement with SGT over the ensuing years led to his election as National President of SGT from 1988 to 1991.

Dr. Oetting (with his wife and 2 children) spent the academic year 1972-73 on sabbatical leave at the von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics in Brussels, Belgium, where he did research utilizing the large low-speed wind tunnel. In addition to his sabbatical leave compensation from UMR, he was the recipient of a NATO Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Science.

Currently, Dr. Oetting is a private pilot and licensed by the FAA as an Advanced Ground School Instructor. In addition to his academic activities as a Professor, he taught a Private Pilot Ground School short course annually through the Continuing Education Department on campus. He did that for 30 years.

Some of his fondest memories while a member of the MAE faculty at UMR are of his interaction with the young men and women as a teacher and mentor. Those young people were undergraduate and graduate students working on degrees in both Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering. He watched them mature as they progressed through to the completion of their degree requirements, graduation, and on to jobs in industry or even graduate school for further academic training. Many of these new degree holders advanced to positions of significant responsibility in their chosen industry. A number of those individuals have been recognized for their achievements and are here tonight as members of the Academy of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering.

Dr. Oetting retired from UMR (now Missouri S&T, of course) in September 1995. Since that time, he and Tommie Ruth have enjoyed international travel and, of course, frequent visits with their daughter Anne (PhD in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Maryland) and family, and son John (MS in Technical Communications from Ball State University) and family. Bob continued to teach the Private Pilot Ground School short course until 2015. If you wanted to see him now, you would most likely find Dr. Oetting on the golf course trying to keep his golf ball out of the rough and on the fairway.

If you ask Dr. Oetting what he would do if he had it to do over — his response, "NO CHANGE! My long time at UMR and my opportunity to interact with so many students has been a highlight of my career as an engineering educator."