Thomas A. Stansbury, 77

Helped develop missile technology

September 08, 2002|By John McCormick, Tribune staff reporter.

Thomas A. Stansbury was a Navy man who loved the water, but it was his work with things that fly that propelled his career and helped him win the rank of two-star rear admiral with the Naval Reserve.

Mr. Stansbury, 77, who helped develop the delivery system that eventually would be used in Tomahawk missiles, died Thursday, Sept. 5, in Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge following complications from an infection.

Besides his work with missiles, the Chicago man had served as a commanding officer of the Naval Reserve Officers' School in Forest Park.

Mr. Stansbury, a second cousin to Justice John Paul Stevens of the U.S. Supreme Court, signed up for the Naval Reserve during World War II while still a high school senior. The military continued to consult with him even after his formal retirement from the reserve in 1980 following nearly 40 years of service.

Born to a stockbroker and homemaker in Chicago, Mr. Stansbury attended high school in Chicago and earned his undergraduate engineering degree at Northwestern University. He later earned a master's degree in engineering at the University of Texas and a law degree from Northwestern.

During World War II, he was a gunnery officer on an anti-aircraft cruiser and destroyer escort. He was again called into active duty during the Korean War, where he served as a gunnery and fire control officer. During the Cuban missile crisis, he helped patrol the Caribbean Sea aboard a destroyer.

It was after the Korean War that Mr. Stansbury became involved with missile research. He was in charge of engineering acceptance of the Talos test missile. He later was supervisor of a program that studied the flight of Polaris missiles once they cleared the atmosphere.

Mr. Stansbury is credited with devising the first terrain-following drone, a forerunner to the Tomahawk missile, and discovered the "Stansbury Effect," which shot down a previous theory that random parts of a missile would burn up in the atmosphere before reaching the ground.

"He was married to the Navy," said Lynn Henderson, a niece from Plainfield who often sailed with her uncle on Lake Michigan aboard his 42-foot sloop.

Mr. Stansbury was engaged in the early 1970s, but the marriage was called off after about five years. "He was a Navy guy," said Mary Morony, who was engaged to Mr. Stansbury and remained a friend. "There was one in every port, so why break that many hearts?"

Other survivors include another niece, Holly Landry; and a nephew, John McDaniel.

Visitation will be from 5 to 9 p.m. Monday at the Pedersen-Ryberg Mortuary, 435 N. York Rd., Elmhurst. A memorial service will be held there at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday.