Herrick, Samuel, 1911-1974

Samuel Herrick, generally recognized as the found of the field of astrodymanics, was born in Madison County, Virginia, in 1911. He received a B. S. in Mathematics from Williams College in 1932 and a Ph.D. in Astronomy from the University of California at Berkeley in 1936. Most of his teaching career was spent at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). Herrick served as an instructor in the Astronomy Department from 1937 to 1942; as an assistant professor from 1942 to 1947; as an associate professor from 1947 to 1952; and as a professor from 1952 to 1962. He was the Hunsaker Professor of Astronomy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology during 1961-1962 and was made a professor in the Astronomy and Engineering Departments at UCLA in 1962. Herrick died in 1974.

Herrick's work applied the classic disciplines of celestial mechanics and mathematics to the special problems of space trajectory research. His studies of the celestial mechanics aspects of space navigation date from 1931, when he received advice and encouragement from R. H. Goddard. As early as 1936, he formulated a development program for the utilization of celestial mechanics in the solution of space navigation problems destined to become real problems only two decades later. In 1946, Herrick instituted a course in Rocket Navigation, the world's first university course designed specifically for astronautics. In 1957, he founded the Astrodynamics Colloquium at UCLA to facilitate communication among scientists engaged in rocket research.

Herrick's publications number over two hundred items, culminating in his comprehensive two-volume work on Astrodynamics, published by Van Nostrand in 1971-1972. His principal contributions to scientific theory are in the areas of orbit determination and ephemeris integration; universal variables; perturbation theory and variation of parameters; differential correction and least squares; space navigation; and sea and air navigation. Further information on Herrick and his accomplishments can be found in the biographical files in Box 1 of the collection.

From the guide to the Samuel Herrick Papers, 1930-1974, (Special Collections, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Va.)