Service Set for Joseph Dunning; Retired Aerospace Executive

A funeral service is scheduled Tuesday at 1 p.m. for Joseph S. Dunning, 75, a retired aeronautical engineer and McDonnell Douglas executive who served four years on the Southern California Rapid Transit District board of directors.

The former vice president for administration at McDonnell Douglas, who helped oversee the firm’s supersonic transport study program, died Wednesday in a Burbank hospital of heart failure.

A graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who did graduate work at Stanford University and Harvard University, Dunning joined Douglas in 1940 as an aeronautical engineer and worked in a variety of executive positions before retiring in 1979.

He was a longtime political supporter of Tom Bradley when the mayor named him to the transit district board in 1987.

He was also on the board of directors of Long Beach Community Hospital and United Way, and was a member of the White House Conference on Youth and past president of the Los Angeles Urban League.

Survivors include his wife, Vivian, two daughters, a son and three grandchildren.

The service will be held at Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills.