Anderson, Roy A.

Roy Arnold Anderson (1920-2003) was born on 15 December 1920 in Ripon, California. He was one of six children born to Carl Gustav Anderson and Esther Marie Johnson, Swedish immigrants. Anderson enlisted in the United States Navy during World War II and worked in the Naval Intelligence Division in San Francisco. A certified public accountant, Anderson earned a Bachelor of Arts in Economics in 1947 and Master of Business Administration in 1949 from Stanford University where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He was called back into service during the Korean War and served in the Naval Cost Inspection Service, assigned to Westinghouse Electric as a resident cost inspector, where he also worked following the war as an accounting manager.

Anderson joined Lockheed Missiles & Space Company (LSMC) in 1956 as a staff accountant and advanced to Assistant Director of Financial Operations and Director of Financial and Management Controls at LMSC's Space Systems Division. He left briefly between 1960 and 1961 to serve as the finance division manager at Ampex Instrumentation Products Company, but returned to the Lockheed-Georgia Company, of which he became Director of Finance in 1965. In 1967 Anderson was appointed the C-5 Deputy Program Manager. He was named Treasurer of Lockheed Corporation in 1968 and was elected Vice President and Controller in 1969, Senior Vice President-Finance in 1971, and Vice Chairman and Chief Financial Officer in 1975. He was named Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Lockheed Corporation in September 1977, when political and financial scandals threatened the company's future. Lockheed's profits and reputation grew steadily during his tenure; he retired in December 1985 and continued to serve on the Board of Directors until 1990 and as a consultant to the corporation into the 1990s.

Anderson was awarded numerous industry and civic honors. The California Manufacturers Association named him Manufacturer of the Year in 1984 and the same year the National Security Industrial Association selected him to receive the James Forrestal Memorial Award for his leadership in the promotion of understanding and cooperation between industry and government. In 1985 the Los Angeles Council of America Boy Scouts presented him with the Good Scout Award and Polytechnic Institute of New York awarded him an Honorary Doctorate of Engineering, and in 1986 Pepperdine University awarded him an Honorary Doctorate of Laws.

His volunteer activities included chairmanships of the Greater Los Angeles United Way, Los Angeles Music Center, Los Angeles World Affairs Council, and Salvation Army. He was also an active alumnus of Stanford University, serving as co-chair of the centennial campaign from 1985 to 1992 and as a member of the Board of Trustees from 1988 to 1990.

He was a member of both the National Association of Cost Accountants (NACA) and the National Association of Accountants (N.A.A.), and was Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Aerospace Industries Association of America, Inc. (AIA).

He married Betty Boehme on 10 June 1948; they had four children, sons Ross and James, and daughters Karyn Anderson and Debra White. He died on 18 October 2003 at his home in La Cañada at the age of 82.

From the description of Papers of Roy A. Anderson, 1909-1995. (Huntington Library, Art Collections & Botanical Gardens). WorldCat record id: 760206912