Over at the original post, John Bossard comments:
Dr. Beard was a colleague of mine as we worked together at the ARES Huntsville office, and I considered him a friend, and I hope he considered me the same.
Bernard had a wide-ranging intellect, and made numerous contributions in a variety of fields, including computational particle physics, before moving into the aerospace field, where he worked for PW in turbojet engines and flight trajectory analysis. He then went into academics, teaching in the ME dept at Christian Brothers in Memphis, and eventually becoming department chair.
It was my opinion that the progressive politics and trans-logical arguments of the academic world eventually lead him to seek work back in the aerospace world, and it was my pleasure to get to work with him when he joined ARES Corporation in 2007. There, Bernard made significant contributions in a variety of different areas, most notably in working on slosh mechanics of the Ares I upper stage, where he developed some amazing analytic modeling capabilities. His website, “Slosh Central”, provided a great deal of references regarding this topic.
Bernard was a reserved, dignified person, of even temperament; calm, and thoughtful. He was a master of the BBQ, and participated in numerous team competitions out of Memphis, where he kept his home with his wife and two sons. He was also scouter, participating as an adult leader in cub and boy scouts with his sons, and this was an area where we found a great deal of common ground.
I’m sure there were many other things that Bernard did, that I’m not aware of, as would be the case of a man with a powerful intellect and imagination.
His passing was sudden and unexpected, and is a tragedy. He will indeed be missed.
Thanks, John.
My condolences for the loss of your friend
Condolences, also. And, a thank you for directing me to Slosh Central. This looks like it could be quite useful to me. I hope someone will take over care and maintenance of the site.
John, thank you very much, and Rand, thank you very much for highlighting John’s remembrance.
Yes, thank you both.
Godspeed Mr. Beard. May your Heaven exceed your wildest expectations.
I also add my condolences to his friends and family.
yes, thanks Rand for highlighting this. Bart, I know Bernard would have been pleased to know that you might find slosh central useful, that’s the kind of person Bernard was.
I went to high school with Bernard (or “Saint” as some of us called him). It was a great shock to hear of his passing. I hope to meet some of you at the memorial service in Memphis.