Samuel F Hutchinson

Samuel Frederick Hutchinson, Captain, US Navy Reserves (Retired) passed away peacefully at the Johnson Center of Falcons Landing on January 20, 2021 after steadily declining health at the age of 88. He was born the older of twin sons in Shelby, Ohio to Roscoe D. Hutchinson and Mary Stine Hutchinson. He spent his youth tending the livestock and garden on the family farm and learned beekeeping through 4H. He was a self-taught magician and headlined magic shows for the community while attending Plymouth High School, graduating in 1950.

It was while attending Wooster College during his second year when Sam attended a lecture about developing career fields and was inspired by aeronautical engineering. He transferred to Purdue University in his third year and attended lectures by Wernher von Braun and worked on wind tunnel projects with fellow student Neil Armstrong. He was on the varsity diving team at Purdue and the varsity track and swimming teams at Wooster, earning letters in all these sports.

After graduating with a BS in Aeronautical Engineering, Sam attended Officer Candidate School in Newport, RI and was subsequently commissioned as an Ensign in the USNR in 1957. After serving on the USS Mt. McKinley during the Middle East Crisis in 1958, he was assigned to the Bureau of Aeronautics in Washington, DC. It was upon transferring his commission to reserve status while he was assigned to the Bureau of Naval Weapons in 1966 when he became a key member of the AEGIS Weapon System Project Office in NAVSEA. There he began his career as a civil servant being directly in charge of the Plans, Programs and Management Systems of the evolution of AEGIS during its total engineering development phase. His dedication and leadership was recognized in being selected to attend the Resident Course of the Industrial College of the Armed Forces from 1975-1976. Sam later became the designated Project Officer for all U.S. Navy Scientific Exchange in the area of shipboard missile/combat weapon systems with Allied nations as well as Deputy Chief of the U.S. Navy Delegation to NATOs Information Exchange Group during the Cold War. His distinguished career culminated in the position of Test and Evaluation Director for the U.S. Navy AEGIS Shipbuilding Project (PMS-400), which included system engineering design of U.S. Navy missiles and targets as well as overall management responsibility for the extensive AEGIS Test Program. Sam’s loyalty and dedication to the United States was uncompromising and matched by his drive to ensure every sailor and ship were protected from any adversary.Among many awards through his career, he was presented in 1989 with the Navy’s “Superior Civilian Service Award” and was recognized as “one of the few genuine experts involved in shipboard combat missile systems…for every at-sea test conducted on AEGIS ships…[who] set the standards, developed the plans, and carried out the most sophisticated, thorough, and successful test program ever accomplished by the US Navy.”

Upon retiring from the civil service, Sam continued as a consultant, advising the former Ballistic Missile Defense Office regarding the integration of the AEGIS system for use as anti-ballistic missile defense. Sam fully enjoyed retirement after his consulting career, participating in bridge groups and social potlucks. Falcons Landing became his home on September 11,2001. He was predeceased by his beloved wife Alma in 1997; as well as his mother, father and sister Betty. He is survived by his daughter Martha of McLean, VA and son Charles (Cindy) of Rockville, MD as well as his twin brother David (Lois) of Shelby, OH. Interment will be at Arlington National Cemetery with Full Honors on 20 August 2021.