Franklin Collbohm Dies; Founder of RAND Corp.
Franklin R. Collbohm, aerospace pioneer and founder of the prototype Santa Monica-based think tank called the RAND Corp., has died at his Palm Desert home. He was 83.
Collbohm died in his sleep Monday evening following a stroke three weeks ago, his daughter-in-law, Vera Collbohm, said Tuesday.
“For two decades as he worked to found and build the RAND Corp., Frank Collbohm made signal contributions to the quality and integrity of the nation’s security policies in general and to the Air Force in particular,” Air Force Secretary Donald B. Rice, a former RAND president, said Tuesday.
An engineer and test pilot for Douglas Aircraft Co., Collbohm agreed to organize the research group in 1946, then called “Project RAND,” at the suggestion of Army Air Corps Gen. Henry H. (Hap) Arnold.
“RAND” had been the acronym for how the innovative group of Douglas scientists, statisticians and engineers referred to themselves--the “research and development” department or “R and D.”
The name stuck when Collbohm separated the research group from Douglas in 1948 to form the independent RAND Corp. He served as its director and president until his retirement in 1967.
“The standing joke around here about the name has always been that we do research and no development,” said RAND spokesman Jess Cook.
What RAND did do from its inception was research that launched the computer revolution, American Soviet studies at many universities, and the U.S. space program. Its first study, Cook said, was to demonstrate the engineering feasibility and policy desirability of Earth satellites.
“During its early years under Collbohm,” said Cook, “it is not an exaggeration to say that RAND was one of the intellectual centers of the Western World.”
The think tank perhaps became best known for its defense studies in areas such as nuclear strategy, aerial refueling and arms control.
Originally set up as a research arm for the Air Force, RAND still receives more than 80% of its funding from the federal government. Over the years, its research has broadened to include civilian problem-solving techniques and social issues as well as strategic military and defense planning.
Last May, Collbohm became one of only 10 people given a Pioneer of Space Award from the National Space Club, an association of academic, government and aviation organizations. He promptly sent the plaque to RAND, saying the whole corporation had earned it.
He also earned the Defense Department’s Distinguished Public Service Medal and the U.S. Air Force’s Exceptional Service Award. From 1960 to 1962, Collbohm served on the Defense Science Board.
Collbohm was always careful to point out that tools developed on the basis of RAND research were only as good as the people who used them.
Computers could be wonderful analytical tools for business, he told the American Management Assn. in 1957, adding: “In modern scientific analyses, the solutions are only as good and as sensible as the people who define the problem, state the objectives and choose the criteria.
Born in New York City, Collbohm studied engineering at the University of Wisconsin before moving west to work for Douglas in 1928.
Collbohm soon became an aide to the company’s founder, Donald Douglas, and served as a special consultant to the secretary of war during World War II.
Involved in designing and testing the DC-1, 2 and 3, he delighted fans of the DC-3 at its 50th anniversary celebration in 1985 by admitting candidly that he couldn’t even remember the plane’s first flight, even though he had been the co-pilot.
“It was so routine,” he said. “We’d been flying the (DC-1s) a lot and then the DC-2 and so the 3 was just another airplane in the line. . . .”
“Frank Collbohm set the highest of standards for research for both the RAND Corp. and for all who follow in his footsteps,” RAND senior fellow Gustave H. Shubert, a longtime friend of Collbohm, said after learning of Collbohm’s death.
“He saw one of RAND’s primary functions as being a hair-shirt organization that could objectively assess what the Air Force and Defense Department were doing or proposed to do, whether or not officials in Washington would like it,” Shubert said in a statement.
Collbohm and his wife, Katherine, who died in 1980, had moved to the desert after his retirement.
He is survived by two sons, Robert of Santa Monica and Carl of Middleburg, Fla., two sisters and a brother, and one granddaughter.
Robert Collbohm said his father had asked that he be cremated with no memorial service. The family asked that any donations be made to the Make-a-Wish Foundation, an organization that tries to fulfill what often are the final wishes of the critically ill.
