Academy Astronautics pioneer dies at 86

  • Published
  • By Dr. Ken Slegenthaler
  • Department of Astronautics
U.S. AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. --  An Academy pioneer died in his sleep March 18 in McKinney, Texas.

Brig. Gen. Roger R. Bate, the first permanent professor for the Department of Astronautics and Computer Science, was 86 and was with family at the time of his death.

General Bate also served as head of the Department of Mathematics and vice dean of the faculty. 

Born Jan. 17, 1923, in Denver, General Bate attended the California Institute of Technology before enlisting in the Army Air Corps in 1943 and subsequently transferring to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, from which he graduated in 1947. A recipient of a Rhodes Scholarship, General Bate attended Magdalen College, Oxford University, earning a degree in Physics. He served with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in the Korean War and was awarded the Bronze Star. Upon return from Korea, Captain Bate was part of a team involved in developing lightweight, portable, nuclear reactors at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. In 1959, he was assigned to the U.S. Air Force Academy as an instructor in the Department of Astronautics. In 1962 he cross-commissioned in the Air Force and was appointed permanent professor and head of the Department of Astronautics. 

In 1966, General Bate earned his Ph.D. in control systems from Stanford University. He established the computer science major in the Department of Astronautics and renamed it the Department of Astronautics and Computer Science. He served as chairman of the Engineering Science Division, member of the Academy Board for seven years, and vice dean of the Air Force faculty. He also helped found the Academy Research Institute. 

In 1971, he co-authored Fundamentals of Astrodynamics, a textbook still used throughout the world. During this time he was an active supporter of Air Force Academy athletics, including serving as the officer representative for the Academy swimming and diving team for seven years. He retired from the Air Force in 1973. 

A pioneer in computer software, General Bate spent 1973 to 1991 with Texas Instruments. He developed distributed computing solutions for ballistic missile defense, created TI's strategy for artificial intelligence and knowledge management and formed their Advanced Software Technology and Computer Science Research Departments. 

In 1991, General Bate retired from Texas Instruments as the chief computer scientist and a Texas Instruments Fellow. He joined the Software Engineering Institute at Carnegie Mellon University and served as the chief architect for the Capability Maturity Models for Systems Engineering. He was the chief architect for the Capability Maturity Model-Integrated that fused models for software and systems. Today, more than 3,000 organizations are using CMMI to structure their development processes. 

In 2008, he invented the concept of constellations of CMMI components to suit a variety of worldwide applications, including CMMI models for acquisition and services. General Bate was a true visionary, scholar, and innovator throughout his life. He was named a Fellow for both the Association for Computing Machinery and the Society for Design and Process Science.

General Bate is survived by his wife of 20 years, Madeline; two brothers, Robert and Richard; eight children, Kathryn Aberle, Donald Bate, Gordon Bate, Carol Bate, Constance Wegmann, Kristin Ferguson, Suzanne Gutherie, and Michael Kunkel. He is also survived by 11 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. General Bate was predeceased by Jeannette Hockman Bate, his wife of 39 years, and daughter Anne Stevens Bate.