Lasting Memories

Holt Ashley
1923-May 9, 2006
Woodside, California

Holt Ashley, a Stanford University professor emeritus of aeronautics and astronautics and of mechanical engineering, died May 9 at his home in Woodside. He was 83.

"His contributions to aerospace were as large as he was," Stanford Professor Brian Cantwell, chairman of the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, said at Mr. Ashley's memorial service. Mr. Ashley was 6 feet, 8 inches tall.

Mr. Ashley was born in San Francisco. He took time off from his studies at the California Institute of Technology to serve as a weather forecaster and reconnaissance officer in the U.S. Army Air Corps serving over the North Atlantic and in Europe.

He earned a master's degree and doctorate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and taught there through 1964. He then taught at the Indian Institute of Technology in Kanpur, founding the university's Department of Aeronautical Engineering. He returned to California in 1967 to join Stanford's Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and retired from full-time teaching in 1989.

"Professor Ashley encouraged us to work on hang gliders or take a summer to think about sailboats or to think about flapping vehicles, whatever, to think independently and to think deeply," said Ilan Kroo, professor of aeronautics and astronautics, who had been one of his students.

Mr. Ashley is survived by a sister, Joan Ashley Ennis, of Silver Spring, Maryland. He was preceded in death by his wife, Frances Day Ashley.