WALTER DAVID PILKEY ~ Class of 1954
October 28, 1936 - August 27, 2007







Walter Pilkey, the Morse Professor of Mechanical Engineering in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of Virginia, passed away Monday, August 27, 2007.

He was the founding director of the Automobile Safety Laboratory (now the Center for Applied Biomechanics) at University of Virginia. He has been on the faculty at University of Virginia since 1969. He also taught at the University of Kabul, Afghanistan from 1963 until 1964, where he helped organize the engineering school and he did research at Ruhr University in Bochum, Germany from 1975 until 1976, and the Naval Postgraduate School from 1983 until 1984, in Monterey, CA.

***Note from Stephanie Dawson Janicek ('60): When Walter left Kabul, Afghanistan, he met my husband-to-be, George Janicek, at the Kabul airport and handed over his apartment keys, office keys, and bicycle combination. George was coming in to replace him as an ME professor at Kabul University. Walter is one of 3 Bombers that George met in Kabul (I was the 3rd and last).

He was involved in engineering programs in Korea, Taiwan, China, Turkey, India, and Russia. Before coming to University of Virginia in 1969, he taught at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, and worked at IIT Research Institute. He received a B.A. degree from Washington State University, an M.A. degree from Purdue University, and his Ph.D. from Penn State University. He was a member of Phi Beta Kappa and a Fellow of ASME.