George L Monahan Jr

West Point, 1955

Be Thou At Peace

Posted by West Point 1955 on February 27, 2016:

G. L. Monahan, 59 A General Who Led 'Star Wars' Program George L. Monahan Jr., a former head of the "Star Wars" missile-defense program and a vice president of the Loral Corporation, died Thursday in San Jose, Calif., during a business trip. He was 59 and lived in Falls Church, Va. The cause of death was a heart attack, said Loral, a military electronics and space communications company in New York City. After retiring as a lieutenant general in the Air Force, General Monahan joined Loral in 1991 as vice president of the company's Washington operations in Arlington, Va. He had served in the Air Force for 35 years and had flown 122 combat missions as a command pilot in Southeast Asia. Born Nov. 21, 1933, in Minneapolis, he graduated from St. Thomas Academy in St. Paul in 1951. He received a bachelor's degree from the United States Military Academy in 1955 and a master's degree in electrical engineering from the University of New Hampshire in 1963. In 1986 he was promoted to lieutenant general. A year later he became principal deputy Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for acquisition in Washington. From February 1989 until his Air Force retirement in 1990, General Monahan was the director of the Strategic Defense Initiative Organization in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. He worked on designing a space-based defensive system against nuclear missiles. General Monahan is survived by his wife, the former Mary Rockwell; four sons, George 3d, of Falls Church, Joseph, of Dayton, Ohio, Brian, of Plainville, Conn., and Andrew, of Biloxi, Miss.; a daughter, Cathy Eisold of Mount Airy, Md.; his mother, Clara Weber Monahan of Minneapolis; two brothers, Jack, of Arlington, Tex., and Dennis, of Minneapolis; a sister, Patricia McClellan of Minneapolis, and four grandchildren. New York Times February 6, 1993

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