IN MEMORIAM

Maurice Holt

Professor of Aeronautical Sciences, Emeritus

UC Berkeley

1918 – 2008

Emeritus Professor of Aeronautical Sciences Maurice Holt passed away peacefully on November 7, 2008. He was born on May 16, 1918, in Wildboarclough, Cheshire, England. He was educated at the Manchester Grammar School and the University of Manchester. He did his master’s thesis with T. G. Cowling in 1944, and his doctorate with Sydney Goldstein in 1948. Immediately after graduation, he joined the University of Liverpool as a lecturer in mathematics, and a year later moved to the University of Sheffield. In 1952, he joined the Ministry of Supply, where he served as the principal scientific officer in charge of the Theoretical Aerodynamics Section of the Applied Mathematics Division, Armament Research and Development Establishment, Fort Halstead, Kent. In 1955, he served as a visiting lecturer in the Mathematics Department at Harvard University, at the invitation of Garrett Birkhoff. In 1956, he joined the faculty of the Division of Applied Mathematics at Brown University. Beginning in 1960, and continuing to the end of his life, he served as professor of aeronautical sciences in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, becoming emeritus in 1988.

 

Professor Holt was a renowned scholar and educator in fluid dynamics. His technical interests included supersonic and transonic aerodynamics, blast waves, underwater explosions, and supersonic separated flows. He was a pioneer in the field of computational fluid dynamics (CFD), his work contributing significantly to raising CFD to the dominant role it now plays in fluid dynamics. He published considerably more than 100 archival papers, authored countless technical reports, and contributed to nine books. His Numerical Methods in Fluid Dynamics, published by Springer Verlag in two editions (1977, 1983), was an early monograph in the field, and particularly notable for introducing to Western scientists numerical approaches and schemes introduced and developed by noted Soviet investigators. His familiarity with the Russian language facilitated this effort and also contributed to his making available in English translations outstanding books by Soviet scholars, many of whom were his good personal friends. All in all, this was Professor Holt’s not insignificant contribution to the larger scientific world’s pioneering work toward détente.

 

Professor Holt was a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the American Physical Society and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. He educated and mentored over three dozen doctoral students from around the world, all of whom have gone on to professional careers in academia, industry, and government, some attaining the highest rungs in their field. Throughout his career Professor Holt consulted widely for the government and industry, primarily the aerospace industry.

 

Professor Holt was one of the cofounders of the International Conference on Numerical Methods in Fluid Dynamics. The meeting was originally conceived in 1968 when a Soviet academician proposed a conference between the Soviet Union and the U.S. on computational fluid dynamics. The first meeting was held in Novosibirsk in 1969. Professor Holt hosted the second meeting at Berkeley in 1970. In the years since, this meeting has attracted the top contributors to computational fluid dynamics and has included many milestone papers. Professor Holt continued to serve, long after his formal retirement, as a member of the conference organizing committees.

 

On the occasion of his 70th birthday a symposium in honor of Professor Holt was held at Williamsburg, Virginia, on June 26, 1988. There were more than two dozen participants from 11 countries. They were either his past students or colleagues whose careers crossed his at some point. The Festschrift volume containing the text of their papers was published by Springer Verlag (Advances in Fluid Dynamics: Proceedings of the Symposium in Honor of Maurice Holt on His 70th Birthday, W. F. Ballhaus Jr., M. Y. Hussaini, eds., 1989).

 

A few personal comments about Maurice: He was a colleague, mentor, and friend to legions. He was a kind man who had more friends around the world than most can claim. He was a man who knew how to enjoy his work, how to enjoy his family, and how to enjoy his friends. In short, he was a man who knew how to enjoy life. Professor Holt was a man who had a house in America and a house in France; yet spoke both American and French with an English accent. He was a man who enjoyed good whiskey, good wine, and a good story. He was a man who, because he ran out of wine, nearly missed the most exciting conclusion to a college football game ever. It was the 1982 Big Game between Stanford University and Cal; Cal scored with one minute left to take the lead; Stanford, with no timeouts left, marched the length of the field under the leadership of John Elway and kicked a field goal to go ahead. There were four seconds left, and Maurice wanted to leave because of a shortage of wine. The rest is history: Cal took the ball on the ensuing kickoff and, using the Stanford Band to run interference, scored the winning touchdown as the gun sounded to end the game.

 

Professor Holt is survived by his wife of 66 years, Eileen; his sister and brother-in-law Celia and Jim Kelly of Berkeley; his son and daughter-in-law Nicholas and Mimi Holt of Los Angeles; his son and daughter-in-law Christopher Holt and Jean Six of Berkeley; his daughter Helen Holt of Berkeley; his daughter and son-in-law Caroline and Mark Constantz of Mountain View, California; and seven grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his daughter Valerie Holt Cohen and his sister Mary Benson.

 

 

              S. A. Berger                                                                                                                        2009