Robert W. Farquhar, NASA mission design specialist, Died at 83

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Robert Willard Farquhar, born September 12, 1932, and died October 18, 2015.

He was an American mission design specialist who worked for NASA.

Farquhar worked for NASA for a total of 23 years.

He designed halo orbits and was involved in a number of spaceflight missions.

Robert Farquhar was born Robert Greener on September 12, 1932 in Chicago, Illinois.

His mother divorced and end up marrying Frank Farquhar when Robert reached age 13.

Frank Farquhar formally adopted Robert when he was in high school, resulting in Robert taking his surname.

Frank Farquhar attended Yale Elementary School in Chicago before attending Parker High School.

When Frank Farquhar was a child, he became interested in aviation, often reading about it and building model airplanes of his own design.

Frank attended Wilson Junior College briefly before joining the army in April 1951.

He completed basic training at Fort Knox and jump training at Fort Benning before being deployed to Fort Bragg as part of the 82nd Airborne Division.

F. Farquhar requested to be transferred to a division which was taking part in the Korean War in the late 1952, being deployed to the 187th Infantry Regiment stationed in Japan.

Farquhar was invited to attend the clerk typist school where he became the company clerk, writing reports, for some time.

One day, after some North Korean prisoners were released, Farquhar’s division was moved to Kimpo airfield for one month. There, he was on the front lines until the ceasefire.

On his return to the U.S., Farquhar attended the University of Illinois Navy Pier campus before moving to the main campus at Champaign in 1957.

Thereafter Frank decided on a career in spaceflight, finishing his bachelor’s degree in aeronautical engineering in 1959.

Frank completed an engineering master’s degree at the University of California. Farquhar attended Stanford University for his PhD in astronautics, which he obtained in 1968.

Mr. Farquhar is also credited with being the first to develop the use of halo orbits.

Frank W. Farquhar passed away on October 18, 2015.