In Memoriam: Paul Arthur

Paul ArthurApril 10, 2017 - Beloved former UC Irvine engineering professor Paul D. Arthur passed away March 18, 2017, at Hoag Hospital in Newport Beach. He was 92.

Arthur earned his doctorate in aeronautics and mathematics from the California Institute of Technology. He was a pioneer in the subject of orbital re-entry and consulted with NASA and its predecessor. He taught graduate-level engineering classes in orbital mechanics and re-entry at USC, mostly night classes for aerospace industry members. In 1965 at the University of Florida, he became an early participant in what we now call distance learning.  Arthur was recruited to the UCI School of Engineering in 1968 by founding Dean Robert M. Saunders. He was hired to lead the school’s development of televised courses for Orange County’s engineering industry.  Dean Saunders had included infrastructure to support a televised curriculum in the design of the Engineering Tower, which opened in September 1970, and he looked to Arthur’s experience..

Arthur joined the faculty as a systems engineer. In 1973, he became an initial member of the budding mechanical engineering program founded by Scott Samuelsen, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, along with Professor Robert Lee and Adjunct Professor Larry Muzio.  While Arthur taught a variety of courses, fluid dynamics and design were his major focus.

“Professor Arthur was unusually popular with students due to his infectious, outgoing personality and sense of humor,” said Samuelsen, director of the Advanced Power and Energy Program. “He led many of the early capstone senior design courses and is remembered for being chased by the UCI Police as he demonstrated a hovercraft, built by students in mechanical engineering, around the campus park (today Aldrich Park).”

Arthur spoke five languages. Being fluent in Spanish, he periodically taught an extra session of fluid dynamics in Spanish. He was instrumental in developing and running the Minority Introduction to Engineering program, a summer residential program to encourage minority high school students who had finished their sophomore year and shown an interest in science and mathematics. Most notably, he reached out over his tenure to encourage young Hispanics in Orange County to consider engineering, resulting in an impressive increase in undergraduate enrollment of these underrepresented students.  One of those to whom he reached out, Patty Duenas, was valedictorian for the Class of 1982.

Another success story was Rosa Navarro, a Santa Ana High School student and native of Mexico. While attending the summer program for minority students, she was noticed by Arthur, who was so impressed with her mathematical abilities that he drove across the border to plead with her parents to let her attend an American college. She ended up at USC majoring in electrical engineering and biomedical engineering. Years later, she went on to earn a medical degree and became an anesthesiologist. Navarro named her first son Arthur after the professor who inspired her to become an engineer.

The UCI campus honored Arthur in 1981 as a recipient of the Lauds and Laurels award for University Service and as Engineering Instructor of the Year in 1986-87.  He retired from UCI in 1987.

According to Samuelsen, alumni continue to ask him, “How is Professor Arthur?” Indeed, when the Samueli School’s communications department reached out to alumni during the 50th anniversary celebration asking for favorite Anteater engineering memories, many mentioned Arthur. See a few below.

Arthur is survived by his second wife of 46 years, Annelle; two sons; two stepsons and nine grandchildren. A Celebration of Life service will be held Monday, June 5 at 1:30 p.m. at University United Methodist Church on Culver Drive in Irvine.

- Lori Brandt


Memories of Paul Arthur

“In my junior year (1970-1971), I enrolled in a course that all engineering majors were required to take.  It was a three-quarter course titled ‘Continuous Media and Fields,’ and covered in a series of 30 lectures three main topics: magnetic flux, heat transfer and sound/light propagation. There were 10 lectures each quarter, with each set of 10 covering one of the three main topics.

“The lectures were all calculus-based and gradually built on the main concept, eventually ending at Lecture 10 with a 3-D integral calculus equation, which described how that specific phenomenon (i.e., magnetism, heat or sound/light) propagated through media (i.e., solids, liquids or space). Typically, the three-dimensional equation had a set of constants in it, with their letters representing specific aspects of the phenomena or media.

“At the end of the 30-lecture series, we thus had three sets of equations, with each one covering its particular phenomenon. The three sets of equations were the product of the previous 89 lecture hours.  Dr. Paul Arthur came in at the last lecture and wrote the three sets of equations on the blackboard. He then casually noted that if we rewrote the equations using a similar symbol for the constants in each, we’d be left with one final, governing equation for all phenomena. The simplicity stunned the class. We all felt that we were peering into the secrets of nature and given a god-like knowledge that all things were connected with such simplistic beauty. It gave me goosebumps, and was probably the most moving ‘ah-ha’ moment I’ve ever had in engineering.

“And yet, being just a junior-level student, I had a lifetime of engineering ahead of me!

“Thank you, Dr. Arthur and UCI School of Engineering for opening that wondrous door for me and my colleagues.” -Jeremiah D. Jackson ‘72
 

“Dr. Paul Arthur, who taught our dynamics class in ’85 or ’86, was a great teacher and a colorful guy, pretty lively in class and the opposite of politically correct. He liked to run down the stairwell in the Engineering Tower and would challenge anyone to beat him. I don’t recall anyone could, despite − or maybe because of − the age advantage.” -Mike Barranco ‘88


“Please find the attached photo as my UCI greatest memory to share. I took this picture with my own camera about three hours before graduation was to begin on June 22, 1982. In the middle first row is our favorite ME professor, Dr. Paul Arthur. I am at the far right, first row. The entrance to the old engineering building is in the background.” (Editor’s note: Class valedictorian Patty Duenas, in the white dress holding flowers, is to the professor's right.) -Arthur Arrizon ’82 (formerly Jose Arthur Rangel)