<p>
<em>Dean A. Herman, Jr.,</em> was born in Ft. Sill, OK, the only child of the late COL Dean A. Herman, Class of ’31, and Martha Goodman Herman. Dean grew up as a typical Army brat, living in ten states be­fore entering West Point. When his father was appointed to the Army Advisory Group in Nanking from 1946 to 1948, Dean and his mother accompanied him to China. He later attributed his appreciation for other cultures and travel to his military upbring­ing, never regretting the constant moving and changes in his young life.</p>
<p>
As a high school senior in Lawton, OK, Dean decided to compete for an appoint­ment to West Point, not only for its fine science and engineering education, but also for the military career that was already part of his family history. Dean graduated 24th in the Class of 1960. He regarded West Point as the place where he forged life-long friendships with many of his classmates and gained a fine education that served him well in his future endeavors.</p>
<p>
After graduation and commissioning in the Field Artillery, Dean focused on his mil­itary career, completing in quick succession the Artillery Officer Basic Course, Ranger and Airborne training. Subsequently, he served as a platoon leader and battery execu­tive officer at Ft. Bragg, battery commander in Korea, and instructor at the U.S. Army Artillery School at Ft. Sill. In 1965, he was selected for advanced civilian schooling at Stanford University to acquire a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering for assign­ment as an Instructor at the Academy. This proved to be a decisive moment in his life, reigniting his intellectual interest in a num­ber of technical fields.</p>
<p>
While at Stanford, Dean met his wife to be, Marguerita Zileff, a Canadian-Bulgarian who was also a graduate student in the Department of History. Married in a colorful Eastern Orthodox wedding at the Cadet Chapel in September 1967, they began what was to be a 44-year union of two people who shared cultures, intellec­tual pursuits, sailing adventures, travel, and hobbies, with each enriching the oth­er’s life. His three-year assignment in the Department of Electrical Engineering was followed by a combat tour in Vietnam. From July 1970 to 1971 he served as assis­tant S-3 for the XXIV Corps Artillery in Danang and then as executive officer and battalion commander of 1st Battalion, 39th Artillery, on Firebase Nancy, south of Quang Tri. Upon his return to CONUS, he was selected again for advanced civilian schooling at Stanford University to earn a doctorate in Electrical Engineering, with a subsequent permanent assignment to the faculty at West Point.</p>
<p>
During 1974-86, Dean served as a Permanent Associate Professor in the Electrical Engineering Department, eventually being selected as deputy head; and in 1982 he was awarded the honor of being named a Professor of Electrical Engineering. He also was selected by the Dean of Academics to lead the effort to ac­credit, for the first time, West Point’s Civil, Electrical, Mechanical and Management Engineering majors. This effort encom­passed over three years of correspondence, constant visits by consultants, thousands of pages of documentation, coordination with supporting (non-engineering) depart­ments, and the establishment of standards for the individual major programs. Praised by members of the evaluation team as the best process they had ever seen, Dean was awarded a Legion of Merit for this work. During these years as well, he initiated a collaborative study on magnetic materials with the nearby IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights. Using his work there to enrich his teach­ing and Electrical Engineering Department courses, Dean went on to publish numer­ous papers on the results of his research.</p>
<p>
In 1986 Dean retired from the Army and pursued a second career with IBM, moving just across the Hudson River to Garrison, NY. His early work at IBM con­tributed to the development and introduc­tion to manufacturing of cutting edge, thin film magneto resistive head technology for IBM’s disk drive business. In 1998, Dean joined a young and enthusiastic IBM team that was developing a new semiconductor technology for radio frequency communications—silicon-germanium. He managed the development of this technology through its initial four generations, growing his team from 30 to 146 engineers and business to around $1 billion per year. In 2005, Dean retired from IBM and moved to Las Cruces, NM. There he and Marguerita designed and built their dream home, overlooking the majestic Organ mountains, and began another stage in their lives. Tragically, after only a few short years in their home, Dean passed away suddenly on Aug 3, 2011 while on a bicycle ride.</p>
<p>
Dean’s life was always one of boundless enthusiasm and energy for new adventures and activities. For decades, he indulged his love of sailing, cruising the islands of the Caribbean with his wife and friends, in­cluding a demanding voyage he made with two others from West Point to Bermuda. A true renaissance man, Dean also was a licensed ham radio operator, private pilot, and scuba diver. In retirement, he became an aficionado of single malt, poetry, history, shooting, and flying model airplanes. His optimism, integrity and all-round brilliance will be sorely missed by his family and friends. Dean was buried near his parents in the National Cemetery at Ft. Bliss, TX. He is survived by his wife Marguerita and numerous family members in El Paso, TX.</p>
<p>
“Vechnaya pamet,” Dean. You will be “eternally remembered” by those who knew and loved you.</p>
<p>
— <em>His wife and classmates.</em></p>
<p>
</p>