George N. Sandor - A Remembrance (From the ASME 1996 Design Engineering Technical Conferences) George N. Sandor, world renowned professor, engineer and a great friend to the kinematic community, passed away at the age of 84 years on April 22, 1996. He was Research Professor Emeritus and Director of the Mechanical Engineering Design Laboratory at the University of Florida, Gainesville, until his retirement in 1989. Dr. Sandor formerly taught at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and at Yale and Columbia University. He was the ALCOA Foundation Professor of Mechanisms Design from 196675, Chairman of the Machines and Structures Division from 1967-74, and finally the Director of the Engineering Design Center in 1975. He worked in U.S. industry for 21 years before starting his graduate work at Columbia. During that time, he made numerous contributions including designing the first color press for Life Magazine. Dr. Sandor received his Doctorate in Engineering Science at Columbia University in 1959 and, in 1986, was honored with Doctor Honoris Causa in Mechanical Engineering at the Technological University, University of Budapest, Hungary. He had become the first mechanical engineer in the previous 19 years to receive this honor. Dr. Sandor was also elected Honorary Member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Dr. Sandor wrote over 140 technical, scientific and educational papers, many in refereed journals, and co-authored several books on mechanical design that have been used at over 100 universities and translated into several foreign languages. He invented or co-invented six issued patents. In all, he advised more than 50 master's and doctor's graduates. Dr. Sandor was a Life Fellow of ASME and a member of the New York Academy of Science. He received numerous honors including the ASME Machine Design Award, the OSU Applied Mechanisms Award, is one of the Outstanding Educators in America and is listed in Who's Who in America and American Men and Women of Science. In the U.S. and Hungary, Dr. Sandor held until 1961, many engineering, administrative, executive and board positions in machinery design, manufacture, and research and development with Hungarian Rubber Co. (affiliated with Dunlop Ltd.), Babcock Printing Press Corp., H.W. Faeber Corp., and TIME Inc. He was a member of the Board of Directors at Huck Co., from 196370 and held P.E. licenses in Florida, New York, North Carolina and New Jersey. Dr. Sandor was an avid flier, sailor, musician and family poet laureate who spoke seven languages. His interest in aviation spanned over 50 years. While a student at the University of Polytechnics in Budapest, Hungry, Sandor helped design an open cockpit, two-passenger biplane for an engineering course project. Unlike many student projects, Sandor's staggered-wing prototype flew perfectly the first try.
Dr. Sandor is survived by his wife, Magda Sandor (who was his co-pilot on many conference trips), the families of his stepchildren, Dr. Stephen and Anne Gergely, and Peter and Judy Vernon. He is well remembered by his kindness to all, his wisdom and unbound curiosity for the field of kinematics. His contributions to the science of mechanisms are many, measurable and permanent. His enthusiasm for life and research is conceivably unmatched. George is now with the Lord, continuing to uncover the secrets beyond life.
