Jerry Curtis South Jr.

Jerry South passed away on the 17th of March. He was born in San Diego, CA on December 14, 1935. He was the son of a career Naval Officer, Jerry C. South, and his mother Doris South, both deceased. As a child, he lived in many “Cities by the sea”, including Honolulu, but he lived most of his teen years in Norfolk, VA. There he attended Granby High School and then on to Virginia Tech. While at Tech, he studied Aeronautical Engineering and was a member of the Corps of Cadets; he was President of the Corps in 1956-57. He was a member of The German Club, Tau Beta Pi, Omicron Delta Kappa, and Sigma Tau. In 1958 he completed his Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees. He joined the newly formed National Aeronautics and Space Administration at the Langley Research Center in Hampton, VA in 1959. After 4 months at Langley, he was called to do his active duty as a lieutenant in the Army Ordnance Corps at the Ballistic Research Laboratories, as a special projects officer working on the Theoretical Mechanics Division, where the main focus was theoretical gas dynamics of hypersonic flows. He rejoined Langley in 1961 and served in the Theoretical Mechanic Division, where the main focus was theoretical research related to Project Apollo, including ablation of heat shields, trajectory analysis, and modeling the effects of a rocket exhaust in a vacuum and its effects on a dusty lunar surface.

During most of his career, Jerry worked in the new field of Computational Fluid Dynamics, the science of formulating methods suitable for solving the equations governing fluid flows and aerodynamics on a high-speed computer.

During his career with NASA, he authored or co-authored over 50 research papers. He served as head of the Theoretical Aerodynamics Branch, the Analytical Methods Branch, and the Computational Aerodynamics Branch. From 1984 to 1987, he served as Chief Scientist of Langley Research Center. He received numerous awards, including the NASA medal for Leadership, the NASA medal for Exceptional Service, and he was elected a Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

He married Anda Ransone Speight in 1986, and they shared 4 children: Mardy South Colling, Curt South, Bradford Speight and Philip Speight. Jerry retired in 1996, and he spend a lot of time on the golf course studying the aerodynamics and trajectories of golf balls.

No funeral services are anticipated at this time, and a celebration of life will be held at a later date yet to be determined.