Dr. Richard A. Montgomery has been appointed director of the Arroyo Center, new division ay Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Montgomery will report to the director of JPL, which is operated by Caltech.
Before assuming his new post, Montgomery served as vice president, operations, at R&D Associates in Marina Del Rey.
The mission of the Arroyo Center is to study long term fundamental issues facing the Army and to provide insights and analyses relevant to major Army decisions. Current Arroyo Center studies are aimed at high-priority needs in the broad areas of national security, force deployment, supporting services and military technology.
Mongomery earned his doctorate in electrical engineering from Caltech in 1948. He has since been active in the application of technology to national defense.
The new Arroyo Center director managed guided missile systems and other aerospace activities at the Boeing Co. from 1951 to 1962 and again from 1964 to 1974. He served in the Office of the Director of Defense Research and Engineering as assistant director for strategic weapons from 1962 to 1964. Montgomery joined R&D Associates in 1975
Montgomery has been memer of the Army Science Board or its predecessors since 1968 and served as chairman from 1981 until his acceptance of the Arroyo Center post.
As he stepped down from the science board chairmanship, Montgomery was awarded the Army's highest civilian honor, the Outstanding Civilian Service Medal.
He has won, in addition, the U.S. Air Force Outstanding Achievement Award (1967) and the Region 6 Achievement Award of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (1970).
Montgomery, native of Vancouver, British Columbia, lives in Pacific Palisades with his wife, Mary.
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