PatClarke
04-05-2009, 12:52 AM
Dick Golembiewski, a friend of FSAE, who used to post on this forum, has passed away.
I got the following email from Steve Fox earlier in the week.
To Dick’s SAE friends,
It has come to my attention that Dick Golembiewski has passed away. This happened unexpectedly this past Sunday morning. I have talked to his parents George & Bernie (each in their late seventies / early eighties). An autopsy was performed on Monday, and the results are in. Dick died of heart failure due to an arterial blockage. He lived with his parents, helping to take care of both of them. He had just finished shoveling the snow and come in. His parents heard him take a last cough and gasp of breath, and then hit the floor. Paramedics were called. They worked on him for 45 minutes. The forensic pathologist who did the autopsy said that for all intents and purposes, Dick’s lights were out before he hit the floor.
Dick’s obituary will be listed with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Wednesday. http://www.jsonline.com/ Funeral arrangements are set for Friday. Details will be in the obit.
As most of you know, Dick was involved in almost all facets of Formula SAE & Baja competition. As a student, he constructed one of the first Mini-Indy (precursor to FSAE) cars while he was attending Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE) in the late seventies. (Picture included) Dick went on to get his P.E. in the state of Wisconsin, and then took a position with Harley Davidson for a short period before settling in as a professor at MSOE.
As a professor at MSOE Dick inspired many a student to higher levels and than they otherwise would have achieved. Dick was instrumental in implementing MSOE’s Vehicle Dynamics curriculum, and served as Faculty Advisor to many MSOE Baja and Formula teams during his tenure. Bob Sechler will certainly recall that it was Dick who formed the very first SAE Collegiate Competition Rules Committee which resulted in our first official set of Baja & Formula rules. During this time period Dick met and formed friendships with many other Faculty Advisors from many different schools.
Over the years Dick has mentored countless thousands of young engineering students with his career at MSOE & his volunteer efforts at FSAE. Dick’s contribution to engineering education, and profound influence on his students cannot be over emphasized. Dick was also the recipient of the SAE’s Faculty Advisor Award in 1994.
The pictures included with this e-mail came from the MSOE website, several years ago, which had a history of MSOE’s SAE Baja & SAE Formula car efforts. Dick was responsible for writing and archiving MSOE’s SAE Collegiate Competition efforts. Dick was a formally trained and practicing engineer, but he was at his best when it came to historical facts. I recently looked for the link to MSOE’s Formula SAE history, and couldn’t find it on their website.
Just before the turn of the century, Carroll tapped Dick to be a Design Judge, knowing that Dick had just recently taken a position with the company that I then worked for (Quarter Master Industries, Lake Zurich, IL). Because Dick was no longer teaching at MSOE that left him with no conflict of interest to Judge.
As you can see Dick has competed, Faculty Advised, Mentored, Chaired the first FSAE Rules Committee, Design Judged, and as Dick was fond of saying: “…done practically every job in FSAE short of Headquarters Staff, and who knows maybe I’ll do that some day as well.” It is too late for Dick to try his hand at headquarters staff, but I am sure it could have been a very successful venture.
Dick mentioned to me several times his premonition that he would die of heart problems at an early age. He knew of the history of bad ticker problems in his family, and suspected that he would fall prey to the same types of problems. I wonder if he had any suspicions that something was physically going wrong recently. If he did, he did not let that on to me. He and I made a point of talking on the phone about once a week, and we e-mailed back and forth quite a bit. I even managed to get him out of FSAE ‘retirement’, and scheduled him to judge at FSAE-VIR ‘09 in another month.
Steve Fox
Requiescat in pace Dick
Pat Clarke
I got the following email from Steve Fox earlier in the week.
To Dick’s SAE friends,
It has come to my attention that Dick Golembiewski has passed away. This happened unexpectedly this past Sunday morning. I have talked to his parents George & Bernie (each in their late seventies / early eighties). An autopsy was performed on Monday, and the results are in. Dick died of heart failure due to an arterial blockage. He lived with his parents, helping to take care of both of them. He had just finished shoveling the snow and come in. His parents heard him take a last cough and gasp of breath, and then hit the floor. Paramedics were called. They worked on him for 45 minutes. The forensic pathologist who did the autopsy said that for all intents and purposes, Dick’s lights were out before he hit the floor.
Dick’s obituary will be listed with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Wednesday. http://www.jsonline.com/ Funeral arrangements are set for Friday. Details will be in the obit.
As most of you know, Dick was involved in almost all facets of Formula SAE & Baja competition. As a student, he constructed one of the first Mini-Indy (precursor to FSAE) cars while he was attending Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE) in the late seventies. (Picture included) Dick went on to get his P.E. in the state of Wisconsin, and then took a position with Harley Davidson for a short period before settling in as a professor at MSOE.
As a professor at MSOE Dick inspired many a student to higher levels and than they otherwise would have achieved. Dick was instrumental in implementing MSOE’s Vehicle Dynamics curriculum, and served as Faculty Advisor to many MSOE Baja and Formula teams during his tenure. Bob Sechler will certainly recall that it was Dick who formed the very first SAE Collegiate Competition Rules Committee which resulted in our first official set of Baja & Formula rules. During this time period Dick met and formed friendships with many other Faculty Advisors from many different schools.
Over the years Dick has mentored countless thousands of young engineering students with his career at MSOE & his volunteer efforts at FSAE. Dick’s contribution to engineering education, and profound influence on his students cannot be over emphasized. Dick was also the recipient of the SAE’s Faculty Advisor Award in 1994.
The pictures included with this e-mail came from the MSOE website, several years ago, which had a history of MSOE’s SAE Baja & SAE Formula car efforts. Dick was responsible for writing and archiving MSOE’s SAE Collegiate Competition efforts. Dick was a formally trained and practicing engineer, but he was at his best when it came to historical facts. I recently looked for the link to MSOE’s Formula SAE history, and couldn’t find it on their website.
Just before the turn of the century, Carroll tapped Dick to be a Design Judge, knowing that Dick had just recently taken a position with the company that I then worked for (Quarter Master Industries, Lake Zurich, IL). Because Dick was no longer teaching at MSOE that left him with no conflict of interest to Judge.
As you can see Dick has competed, Faculty Advised, Mentored, Chaired the first FSAE Rules Committee, Design Judged, and as Dick was fond of saying: “…done practically every job in FSAE short of Headquarters Staff, and who knows maybe I’ll do that some day as well.” It is too late for Dick to try his hand at headquarters staff, but I am sure it could have been a very successful venture.
Dick mentioned to me several times his premonition that he would die of heart problems at an early age. He knew of the history of bad ticker problems in his family, and suspected that he would fall prey to the same types of problems. I wonder if he had any suspicions that something was physically going wrong recently. If he did, he did not let that on to me. He and I made a point of talking on the phone about once a week, and we e-mailed back and forth quite a bit. I even managed to get him out of FSAE ‘retirement’, and scheduled him to judge at FSAE-VIR ‘09 in another month.
Steve Fox
Requiescat in pace Dick
Pat Clarke