Oral history interview with Richard Dean Freeman, 2008 Nov. 14

Richard Dean Freeman was born in Rushville, Indiana on November 27, 1928 and grew up in West Lafayette where his father was a professor at Purdue University and later Associate Dean of Agriculture and Director of Resident Instruction. He received a bachelor of science in aeronautical engineering from Purdue in 1950 as well as bachelor of naval science and tactics the same year. Freeman earned a masters in industrial management from the Krannert Graduate School in 1954. Freeman served in the military as a Marine in Korea. He talks about campus life in the 1950s, special feats such as the heat tunnels, familiarity with campus buildings, and working for Dean George Hawkins, College of Engineering. He talks about many of his places of employment: General Motors Corporation in Warren Ohio; TRW Inc. RamoWooldrige Division, Denver, Colorado, Vice President of Business Development, Rockwell International Anaheim, California, and currently International Pacific Company Newport, California. He has done research on Amelia Earhart and was the speaker at a Libraries hosted Back to Campus program in the 1990s. He was an active alumnus, Class of 1950, involved in the fundraising for the Class of 1950 building on campus. Among his awards and honors are 1973 Distinguished Engineering Alumnus; Outstanding Aerospace Engineer Award, Purdue School of Aeronautics and Astronautics (1999) and Lifetime Achievement Award from Kappa Sigma Fraternity (2004). Freeman served on the Dean of Libraries Advisory Committee from 1992-2003