IN MEMORIAM
Remembrances KEN HALLIDAY, 1947–2012 Kenneth Richard Halliday, former associate professor of mechanical engineering, passed away July 16 after a long illness. Halliday had retired in July 2011 after serving the Russ College for 29 years. Halliday, who developed the program’s first-year introduction to mechanical engineering course, also co-created — along with Kremer and Professor of Mechanical Engineering Israel Urieli — the program’s year-long mechanical engineering senior design capstone experience. Student teams have won several national awards for their projects.
“Ken was a defining presence in the department as it grew from a handful of faculty to the large department that it is today. I still hear alumni talk about how Dr. Halliday’s real-world but no-nonsense approach helped them develop into good engineers.” — Department of Mechanical Engineering Chair Greg Kremer
Honored with the Russ College’s Russ Outstanding Teaching Award in 1984, he also served as undergraduate chair for the department and was advisor for the Electric Bobcat Racing Team and the Society of Automotive Engineers Mini Baja team. He attended night school at Western New England College to earn his bachelor’s degree while working at General Electric in western Massachusetts and then went on to obtain his Ph.D. at the University of Massachusetts. He taught at Rhode Island University and the University of Texas at Arlington before teaching at Ohio University.
DAVID QUINET, 1962–2012 David Arthur Quinet, a senior program engineer, Avionics Engineering Center, passed away in May in San Diego, California, after a brief illness. A sought-after expert in aviation navigation technology who consulted for national aviationrelated agencies and airports across the globe, Quinet was a 1984 electrical engineering graduate of Ohio University, serving as both a research assistant and a student intern with an assortment of scholarships. Quinet and his team at the Avionics Engineering Center were often the most-funded research team at the Ohio University campus over the past 15 years, routinely securing more than $3 million a year from sponsors ranging from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to industry leaders such as Northrop Grumman to international agencies. Quinet contributed to the development of a series of innovative electronic devices that helped to ensure reliable and safe operation of an aircraft.
“Dave and his navigation team found solutions to vexing electronic system problems that, in some cases, no one else in the world had been able to solve.” — Avionics Engineering Center Director Mike DiBenedetto, B.S.E.E. ’84, M.S.E.E. ’88, Ph.D. ’99
Over the course of his career at the center, Quinet performed technical services for at least 20 governments around the world and provided expertise for airport installations in Afghanistan, Iraq, Nigeria, and South Sudan. Quinet and colleagues were honored in 2007 with a special commendation from the president of Ohio University for their research success. That same year, he was presented with the Federal Aviation Administration’s Navigation Services Superior Performance Award for his many years of outstanding support for the agency. In 1980, 1995, and 2005, he received of the Russ College’s Avionics Engineering Center Directors Award, which recognizes employees who contribute to the center’s success.
Richard F. “Dick” McFarland, M.S. ’50 Russ College Honorary Graduate Director Emeritus and Chief Engineer Avionics Engineering Center 1929-2012 Editor’s note: This issue of Ingenuity was already in production at the time Dr. McFarland passed away. A more complete tribute can be found online at www.ohio. edu/compass/stories/12-13/10/mcfarlanddeath.cfm/.
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