Herbert Singer, an MIT alumnus who worked at Draper Laboratory for 40 years, died Aug. 12 at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center after a stroke. He was 71.
Singer worked on projects for the Department of Defense and NASA, including the Apollo space mission and satellites Titans, Minuteman, Polaris, Poseidon, Trident I and II and Peacekeeper. His area of expertise was the development of ball bearings for guidance systems for spacecraft and satellites.
NASA recognized Singer twice for his contributions: In 1973 the agency gave him a group achievement award for his contributions to Skylab, and in 2003 it awarded him a certificate of recognition.
After retiring from MIT in 1995, Singer became a full partner at The Bearing Consultants, where he continued to develop bearings for space applications.
Singer earned a B.S. in mechanical engineering from MIT in 1955 and received a master's degree in mechanical engineering from Northeastern University in 1968. He published several studies during his career and held three patents.
He grew up in Boston and had lived in Randolph since 1960. He was a member of Temple Beth Am in Randolph and was an avid golfer.
He is survived by his wife, Beverly Singer of Randolph; a son, Steven Singer of Marlborough; a daughter, Lori Singer of Chestnut Hill; and a sister, Sylvia Rosen of Brighton.
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on October 19, 2005 (download PDF).
