Award Year
2011
Graduation Year
1951
Department
Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Award Category
Engineering Hall of Fame
Biography
Retired, National Air and Space Intelligence Center (NASIC) Elmond Decker is an engineer, an inventor, and a science educator. Decker joined the U.S. Army Air Corps. because of his amateur radio background and his Morse code speed. He returned home to study electrical engineering at Oregon State on the G.I. Bill.
In the post-Korean War era, Decker was given free reign by the Air Force to do the technical research and engineer an over-the-horizon radar system to better monitor Russian missile launches. Upon his retirement from NASIC, Decker worked through the Dayton, Ohio, Engineering and Science Foundation to develop 91 Waves Science Kits and books for school systems around the world.