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Walter Herrmann was born at home in Johannesburg, South Africa on 2 May, 1930 to Gottlob Fredrich Herrmann, hotel proprietor, and Gertrud Louise Herrmann nee Retzlaff. He was introduced to world travel early when the family took an extended European vacation in 1939. Narrowly escaping World War II, the family returned to South Africa, where Walter continued his education, completing his BSc and all requirements for his PhD in Mechanical Engineering at the University of the Witwatersrand by age 23. He was selected as one of two South African participants in the 1953 Foreign Students Summer Project at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge Mass. At its completion, he was invited to continue his research at MIT as an exchange student. He was finally awarded his PhD by Witwatersrand University in 1955 after lengthy review of his thesis by external examiners. He married Betty Lorraine Allard in 1955, and the couple spent an extended honeymoon traveling by bicycle and Youth Hostels in Europe and the Middle East on their way back to South Africa. Walter became a lecturer in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Cape Town. In 1957, he was invited to return to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as part of the Cold War research effort, and worked in their Division of Sponsored Research, becoming one of the early scientists attempting to understand and predict the effects of intense explosions and very high speed impacts. He moved to the Sandia National Laboratories in 1964, continuing to work on the computer simulation of impacts and explosions and the behavior of materials at extreme pressures and temperatures. This allowed him to work with successive generations of supercomputers as they became available. He published numerous reports and gave many lectures at international symposia, including ones in Russia and China at the invitation of the Russian and Chinese Academics of Sciences, respectively. Entering management, he rose to become Director of Engineering Science at Sandia. He was inducted into the US National Academy of Engineering in 1993, and retired from Sandia that same year. He was divorced in 1983 and married Ednarae Bligh Gross in 1988. Throughout his life he had a keen interest in travel, mountain climbing, and amateur archaeology, and was able to indulge these interests on all continents, making many friends throughout the world. He is survived by his children, Peter and Inga Herrmann; grandchildren, Rishar, Maria and Joshua; and step-children, Allan and Jeffrey Gross, all of Albuquerque, and Janis Gross of Longmont, CO. A Memorial service will be held at the Heights Cumberland Presbyterian Church, 8600 Academy NE (corner of Moon), on Saturday, June 17, at 10:00 a.m. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to the Walter Herrmann Memorial Fund at the Zoo, Albuquerque Biological Park. Sunrise Society is serving the family of Dr. Herrmann, (891-8200).
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