Foil: 9 Panel: 2 Column: 1 Line: 62

Wall of Honor Level:
Air and Space Friend

Honored by:
Mr. John Holbrook

Owen Holbrook, a 1944 graduate of Iowa State University, devoted a long engineering career starting during World War II to weapons development to help insure this nation's freedom. He made significant contributions during and after the war in helping to perfect the proximity fuse, and also, in developing the "Friend or Foe" transponder technology for naval carrier based aircraft.
Owen Holbrook later spent nearly 25 years working on the "Harpoon" ship-to-ship guidance missile. Much of his work involved innovative reliability and probability studies allowing this weapon system to be cost effective and easily deployed by both this country and its allies.
As a measure of Mr. Holbrook's stature and reputation in his field, he was awarded the "Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineering" lifetime achievement award.