Bernhard H. Anderson
May 31, 1934 – January 18, 2025
WESTAKE, OHIO, USA. Bernhard “Bernie” Herman Anderson Jr., aged 90, living at the Concord Reserve in Westlake, Ohio, died peacefully on January 18, 2025, due to a stroke and heart complications. Bernie Anderson was born on May 31, 1934, and was raised in Yonkers, Westchester, New York, a suburb of New York City. He was the son of the late Bernhard Herman Anderson Sr. (1895-1963) and the late Ingegerd Lovisa Svenson (1898-1986) who immigrated from Trollhättan, Sweden to New York City through Ellis Island in 1931 with his older brother, the late Olof Lennart Anderson (1931-2021). After graduating from Roosevelt High School in Yonkers, New York, Bernie earned a Bachelor of Science degree in aeronautical engineering from Renssaealer Polytechnic University in Troy, New York (1956) and earned a Master of Science degree in aeronautical engineering from Case Institute of Technology in Cleveland, Ohio (961). He married the late Hedwig Anna Thomay (1939-2017) in 1958 in Cleveland, Ohio and they had three children—Emile August, Ernest Eric Albert, and Vivica Ingrid between 1960 and 1963.
Bernie worked as an aeronautical engineer before the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was formally established by President Eisenhower in 1958. He worked at the NASA Lewis Research Center in the cities of Brook Park and Cleveland, which was renamed the NASA John H. Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field in 1999 to honor John. H. Glenn who was a fighter pilot and the first American astronaut to orbit the Earth. Bernie’s professional career developed plans and hardware for engine inlet testing for a supersonic wind tunnel, and advanced engine inlet technology and military applications such as the B-58 bomber and the YF-12 fighter. He published several papers in scientific journals and received exceptional service awards for analytic work in the aeronautical sciences, especially the supersonic performance of aircraft, and a new generation of wind tunnel experiments and computational fluid dynamics turbulence models to improve the efficiency of airplane flight. Bernie received the Apollo Achievement Award for advancing aeronautical capabilities for the successful mission landing of Apollo 11 in July 1969 that sent the first human spacecraft to the moon. His work built the foundation to advance NASA’s Artemis campaign to establish a permanent base on the moon to facilitate human missions to space. Bernie received a Presidential Recognition Award for 50 years of service to NASA in 2005, and for 60 years of continuous and dedicated public service to the U.S. government from 1955-2015 before he retired from NASA in 2017 at age 83 years.
Bernie was an avid nature photographer for 50 years and curated several photography exhibits in Cleveland, Ohio. He was a history buff, avid reader, and an active member of the West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church, and a passionate supporter of the Cleveland Orchestra, the Cleveland Museum of Art, and the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. His surviving children with the late Hedwig Anna Thomay (1939-2017) are Emile Renoir August Anderson and (Mary Ann Anderson) in Nashua, New Hampshire; Ernest Eric Albert Anderson and (Deborah Anderson) in Georgetown, Texas; and Vivica Ingrid Anderson Kraak in Blacksburg, Virginia. His five surviving grandchildren are Dane, Olivia, Elizabeth, Catherine and Ann.
Reverand Mary Grigolia will officiate the memorial service will be held on March 8, 2025 at the West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church at 20401 Hilliard Boulevard in Rocky River, Ohio. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in memory of Bernhard H. Anderson to the West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church in Rocky, River, Ohio (https://wsuuc.org/); Carolyn L. Farrell Foundation for Brain Health in Westlake, Ohio (https://farrellfoundation.org/); The Cleveland Orchestra (clevelandorchestra.com/donate); The Cleveland Museum of Art (https://www.clevelandart.org/); Doctors Without Borders (donate.doctorswithoutborders.org); and Salem for Refugees in Salem, Oregon (https://www.salemforrefugees.org/).