Dr. Carl Joseph Scherz
Fellow and Director of Flight Controls, Military Transport Aircraft , Boeing, Long Beach California

Born Feb. 10, 1935 Died August 1, 2013 .
Carl Scherz grew up in Saint Louis, Missouri. He received a BS in Engineering from Washington University in St. Louis. He worked at Vickers while completing his MS in Engineering through night school at St. Louis University. He earned his Doctor of Science in automatic controls at Washington University in St. Louis in 1965.

In the course of his distinguished career with McDonnell Douglas/Boeing, Dr. Scherz made significant contributions to the evolution of advanced flight control systems in development of the F-15A, F-15E and the C-17. In the 1970s, Carl worked on developing control systems to provide F-15 Gust Alleviation and Ride Qualities Improvement. In the 1980s, he was involved in converting the F-15A Dual Analog Control Augmentation System(CAS) to a Digital CAS.

In 1989, McDonald Douglas sent him to Long Beach, California to develop the C-17 Flight Control System. The C-17 was the first fly-by-wire military transport and is quad-redundant.

In recognition of his efforts, he received the Outstanding Engineering Achievement Award from the Los Angeles Council of Engineers and Scientists in 1994. That same year, he was made a Fellow in the Institute for the Advancement of Engineering. In 1996, he became a McDonnell Douglas Fellow.

He presented papers at the IEEE/AIAA Digital Avionics Systems Conference, the National Aerospace and Electronics Conference, and the AIAA Guidance and Control Conference.

In 1999, Dr. Scherz retired, but stayed active as a volunteer grant writer for a homeless shelter for families with children. He also volunteered at church, worked on family genealogy and traveled to visit his three children and eight grandchildren. His love of history often took him to far off places. He died after a year long battle with pancreatic cancer in August 2013.