Throughout his career, Gary Armstrong ’73 served in a variety of engineering roles and accomplished great things, but one of the things he credits most to MSOE are the lifelong connections he made while on campus.
“When I arrived, I knew no one. Freshman year I developed friendships with five other guys on my floor in RWJ. We spent the next four years supporting each other with laughter, trips and countless memories,” he said.
Armstrong grew up in Ottawa, Illinois, just two hours away from Milwaukee. At age 16, he secured his first job as an office assistant at Sexton Consulting Engineering in Ottawa. It was his first experience working in an engineering field.
After being accepted to Valparaiso, Purdue and Illinois State, he chose MSOE because of its smaller campus and smaller class size. One of his most memorable moments was working on his senior design project.
“I designed and built a tennis ball throwing machine,” said Armstrong. “Not only did I pass with an A, but I also got an honorable mention at the ASEE Competition.”
Armstrong graduated from MSOE with an associate degree in fluid power engineering technology in 1973. He also completed an additional four years in mechanical engineering before leaving to start working as a crew chief at Sexton.
In 1977 he left Sexton to work as a design engineer for Harnischfeger, a mining company in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. At Harnischfeger, Armstrong designed and built rough and truck hydraulic cranes. After a few years, he was promoted to project engineer and was responsible for the hydraulic system for Harnischfeger’s leading crane, “the Omega.”
After seven years with Harnischfeger, he moved his wife and kids to Mesa, Arizona to work for Garrett Air Research, now Honeywell Aerospace, as a design engineer. He spent 32 years at the company working on multiple classified projects including a torpedo loading system for Seawolf Class submarines and a power transfer unit hydraulic pump motor used on the A320 Airbus, the system that was famously used by former fighter pilot Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger to land the A320 in the Hudson River when the power from the engines failed in 1990.
In 2001, Armstrong was promoted to program manager in sourcing and tasked with developing and writing a cost reduction process until his final position as manager of engineering in the fluid power division of Honeywell. He received three patents before retiring from the company in 2015.
Today Armstrong and his family still reside in Mesa, Arizona, but he and wife Sheri make trips back to their cabin in Wisconsin often. This past summer he toured the new Herman Viets Tower, formerly RWJ, with two of his former classmates. They revisited the 11th floor where their friendship began.
“Mac, Larry, Bob, Rich, Jay and I all lived on the same floor. To this day, I still say without their friendship I would not have made it through,” said Armstrong.