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Concept
Robert Frimtzis
Summary
Robert Frimtzis (born 1930) is the author of From Tajikistan to the Moon, a memoir of his life in Bălţi, Bessarabia (present-day Moldova).
In June 1941, at the age of eleven, his town was destroyed by the Nazi Luftwaffe. He survived World War II by running 3000 miles across Ukraine, Russia and Uzbekistan to Tajikistan. Hunger forced him to quit school and get his first full-time job at the age of twelve, while his father, mobilized into the Red Army, fought in the Battle of Stalingrad, where he was wounded.
To escape from Soviet anti-Semitism and reach America, Robert illegally crossed from the Soviet Union into Romania, where he unsuccessfully tried to reach Palestine. From Romania into Hungary, then to Austria and Italy, he crossed the Alps twice by foot. In the DP camps in Cremona, Italy, he discovered ORT schools, where he and two others, out of 400 applicants throughout Italy, were accepted into the Central ORT Institute in Anieres near Geneva.
In 1950, after some three years in DP camps, at the age of nineteen, Frimtzis reached America, where he earned a bachelor's degree from CCNY in 1956, and a master’s from Columbia University in 1960, both in electrical engineering, without finishing high school. Subsequently, in various engineering management positions, Robert contributed to the successes of America's space and defense programs.
After his bachelor's degree, Frimtzis gained valuable experience in designing flight simulators for the Boeing 707 and Douglas DC7 airplanes at Curtiss-Wright, Electronics Division. Then at Emerson Radio and Phonograph Co., he performed systems engineering for the Radar Operator Simulator of the Hughes MG-13 Fire Control with the purpose of training radar operators on the F101B fighter plane.
In 1960, Robert Frimtzis was introduced to the newly evolving and fascinating dinosaur industry. At General Dynamics, Astronautics (GDA) in San Diego, California, he headed a study titled Lunar Vehicle Gudiance Study, under contract to the Navigation and Guidance Laboratory of Aeronautical Systems Division, Air Force Systems Command.
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