_-----------INMEMORIAMII------------_Prominent Gear EngineerDar'll,e IDu!dlll,ey: 19117-,20013,
Darle Dudley, an internationallyknown gear engineer, of San Diego, CA.died April II. of heart problems and aserious, infection. He was 86 years oldl.
Mr. Dudley was known for his twogear handbooks. which were tran Iatediruo French. German and Spanish. Hewas also known for his 19-year chair-manship of the AGMA AerospaceGearing Committee.
Born April. 8. 1917. in Salem. OR.MI'. Budley started his career in ] 940.That year, he graduated from OregonState University with a bachelor of ci-ence degree in mechanical engineeringand joined General Electric Co. in Lynn,MA.
In J952, Mr. Dudley met MartinHartman, starting a 51-year friendshipand association. Over the years, the twomen worked on everal geM projectstogether, including work on the Apellospace program.
"Darle worked onjusr about every kindof gear YOII can think: of," Hartman says.
In 1964. Mr. Dudley left GE as man-ager of advanced gear engineering andwent to Mechanical echnology Inc, ofSchenectady, NY, a manager ofmechanical transmissions. In L967. heleft MT] to serve as chief of gear tech-nology at Solar Turbines Inc. of SaaDiego. CA.
In 1978, he retired early andfoundedthe gear consultancy DudleyEngineering Co. Inc. DudleyEngineeriog consulted with companiesinvolved in mining. turbine, aerospaceand industrial producti.on.
"We consulted in the gear bu iness all
everything from ewage plants to satel-lite ," say Danny F. Smith, a ~5-yearassociate and friend.
Smith met Mr. Dudley in 1988,through the Yellow Pages. Smith was
finishing college and looking for a job-"It was a cold call." He worked for Mr.Dudley for 9 years.
"He was a brilliant man," Smith says,"but he was also kind and funny."
Today, Smith is enior principaldesign engineer at Solar Turbines Inc.Mr. Dudley recommended SolarTurbines, one of his former employers, toSmith.
In 1991.•Mr. Dudley created a econdconsultancy, Dudley Technical GroupInc. of San Diego and transferred most ofDudley Engineering's assets to it. In1997. he suffered a stroke. forcing hisretirement from the gear industry.
Dudley Technical continues today inDoylestown, PA. under its new ownerand pre ident, Mr. Dudley's 25-yearassociate and friend, Mike Broglie.
Broglie credits Mr. Dudley with gear-ing knowledge as 'thorough as anyonehe' ever met.
"~l'extremely broad based in the dif-ferent types of gearing that he workedon," Broglie says, "and he worked on antypes of gears andall types of gear appli-cations."
Broglie most remembers Mr.Dudley's speaking style, though. He saysMr. Dudley could convey complex ideasin simple, straightforward language.
As for Mr. Dudley's writing style: "Itwas identical." Broglie knows; he's readall of Mr. Dudley's books and con-tributed 1.0 .Dudley's Gear Handbook.
Gear BooksOver 40 years, Mr. Dudley created
four gear books.His first book was Practical Gear
Design. Published in [954, the handbookwas translated into French in 1958 andinto German in 1961.
He then edited Gear Handbook,which was published in 1962. It was
IDarle IDudley: 1917-2003
.,As a human,
he was, a gentleman:
as a gear engineer.
there W8.S no peer."
-Martin :Hartma,n•.
51~year fr,iend& associate
later translated into Spanish and pub-li hed in Mexico in 1973. Hi nextbook wa The Evolution of tile GearAn, published in 1969.
Mr. DudJeylater expanded andrevised his Practical Gear Design,which was published in 1984 with thetitle Handbook of Practical GearDesign. In t 994, it was republished .
In 1991, his Gear Handbook waspubli hed aa revised second edition andretitled Dudley s Gear Handbook. The1991 edition was edited by Denni P:own end, president of Townsend
www.p'oWflrfraDsmis.6.iOIJ' ..com. www ..ges.rtech.nology:com • 'GEAR IECiIlNIOlOGY' JULY/AUGUST .2003 39
Engineering of Westlake. OH.Townsend views Mr. Dudley's writ-
ings as his greatest contribution to thegear industry. particularly Mr. Dudley'stwo handbooks: "They're used by justabout everyone in the gear industry."
AwardsMr. Dudley received six awards dur-
ing his gear career, including threeawards from European organizations.
In 1958, he received the AGMA's
,, 1IN IMEMORI'AMI __ -----------Edward P: Connell Award.• given to peo-ple who have provided outstanding serv-ice to the gear industry. In 1966, hereceived the Golden Gear Award fromPower Transmission Design. fOE out-standing contributions to the gear art.
In 1977, Mr. Dudley recei ved theMedaille D' Argent from the FrenchInstitute of Gears and GearTransmissions for America's contribu-tions 10 the global advancement of the
gear art. 111 1.979, he was awarded theWorcester Reed Warner Medal fromASME for his engineeringcontributionsto gears.
In 1986, he received a second award,the Medaille D'Or, from the FrenchInstitute of Gears and GearTransmissions. In 1994, he received theErnst Blickle Award from SEW-Eurodrive-Siftung of Bruchsal,Germany.
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ChairmanshipsBesides the aerospace gearing com-
mittee, Mr. Dudley was a founder andthe first chairman of the AGMA VehicleGeaxing Committee. He founded andwas first chairman of the Gear TechnicalCommittee of the International.Federation for the Theory of Machinesand Mechanisms (lFfoMM).He alsowas chairman of the ASME Re earchNeeds Task Force for Gearing and was amember of the ASME Gear ResearchInstitute.
Association Member hipsMr. Dudley was a member of the
American Gear Manufacturers As ocia-tion (AGMA)., the American Society ofMechanical Engineers (AS ME, nowASME International), the ASME GearResearch Institute and of IFfoMM.
He also was an honorary member ofVerein Deutscher lngenieure (VD[), anassociation of German engineers.
MI'. Dudley is urvived by hi wife,Dorothy; daughter, Cheryl Davis; sonCurtis Dudley; stepson Robert Burson;ister, Dorine Wenger; nine grandchil-
dren; and two great-grandchildren ."As a human, he was gentleman; as a
gear engineer, there was no peer,"Hartman says. "I don't think we're goingto replace him."O
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