Eugene "Gene" Pierce Bartlett

Faith, Family, Business Owner, U.S. Air Force, Aeronautical Engineering, Apollo 11

Eugene "Gene" P. Bartlett breathed his last breath on this earth and went to be with his Lord and Savior at 7:45 pm, Monday, Dec 16, 2024, at RiverBend Hospital in Springfield, OR, surrounded by his loving and grateful family. Gene was born in Grants Pass, Oregon to James P. and Hazel G. (nee Harmelink) Bartlett, the middle son of three boys, Kenneth J., Johnny R. and a sister, Margarete, all of whom preceded Gene in death, in addition to his parents. Bartlett is survived by his second wife, Sylvia M. of Eugene whom he married in 2015, daughter Kandi R. of Springfield, and two sons, David P. of Springfield and Thomas E. of New Richmond, WI, and 14 grandchildren, 6 great grandchildren, and one great great grandchild. Gene’s first wife, Barbara A. (nee Stangland), preceded him in death in 2012, as did a grandson, Emmett G. in 2019. 

In 1941, the Bartlett family moved to Salem, Oregon where Gene graduated from Salem High School in 1950. During junior high and high school, Gene spent summers picking strawberries, beans, peaches, prunes and whatever he could to have money for clothes and treats like a grapette soda and a donut for a whopping 10 cents. When he turned 16, he got a job at the Blue Lake Cannery in Salem where he worked every position in the company from the cook room, to the production line, loading the hoppers, working the machines, adding syrup to the cans, strapping cans as they came out of the lidding machine, and delivering the cans to other stations, among other tasks.

Gene was gifted in academics and especially mathematics, and after high school, was accepted at Willamette University, where he joined the newly formed ROTC program with the Air Force as a sophomore. After three years at Willamette, Gene transferred to Stanford University in Calif, as part of a "3-2" program where he would receive a degree from both universities at the end of his schooling at Stanford. Sure enough, as a double major, Gene graduated as the top male student in his class at Willamette and the number one student in the School of Engineering at Stanford (with "Great Distinction"), earning a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics and Physics from Willamette and a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford. 

After college, Gene returned to Salem for some leave prior to his first Air Force assignment. During that visit, an acquaintance from church, Don Stangland, invited Gene over one evening for dinner. Gene was sitting in the living room, when out walked Don's sister, Barbara, with a tray of cookies. In his mind, Gene’s reaction was “Wow, she’s a catch!” but he also thought she was out of his league. When Barb left the room, Gene thought for sure she had walked out of his life.

In late June of 1956, Gene reported for duty at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., where he was assigned to the Flight Test Division. His first project was to revise the Flight Test Manual used by the Flight Test Engineers, including recalculating the existing manual from 35,000 feet altitude and subsonic flight to 80,000 feet and supersonic flight to Mach 3. This kind of applied calculation, and being on flying status as an observer, was "fun" for Gene. 

While stationed at Edwards AFB, Gene bought his first new car, a 1956 Chevy Belair convertible, for $99.77 down and $99.77 a month for 36 months (on a $125.00 per month take-home paycheck). 

In December of 1956, the Air Force granted Gene Christmas leave so he headed for Salem in his new car. He arrived home on a Saturday night, and Sunday morning in the church foyer he heard a female voice call out "Hi, Gene, it's so nice to have you home!" Incredibly, it was Barb. They chatted, and after two dates and a successful proposal, Gene and Barb were married on June 7, 1957. 

 In October of 1957, with the lid blowing off on the Space Race between the United States and the USSR, Gene applied for and was granted a December early release from the Air Force, and immediately started sending out applications to get into the booming aerospace industry. Gene landed a position with Aeronutronic Systems, Inc (ASI), which later became Aeronutronic Division of Philco-Ford. Gene then accepted a job with the Thermodynamics Department of Vidya Division/Itek Corp., where he became known as the go-to authority on the applied science of heat ablation, multicomponent ablation and coupled ablator/char boundary layer as related to supersonic and space flight. Many of Gene's books and papers are still available today and can be found online. One critically important and widely accepted book is "An Analysis of the Coupled Chemically Reacting Boundary Layer and Charring Ablator," by Eugene P. Bartlett ad Robert M. Kendall. 

After about a year with Vidya, one of Gene's Stanford classmates, the brilliant Dr. Peter "Pete" McCuen, head of the Thermodynamics Dept at Vidya, engineered a spin-off of the company into an independent company which the group named Aerotherm Corporation. Pete took Gene and six other engineers along with him, and surprisingly, they didn't lose a single contract. Aerotherm Corporation started out in a small office complex near Stanford University and later moved to an office complex over a barber shop on California Avenue in Palo Alto. The company continued to grow and eventually had a building constructed to their specifications in Mountain View with a view overlooking the Sunnyvale golf course across from Moffett Field, then a Naval Air Station (now Moffett Federal Airfield). Eventually, Aerotherm was renamed Acurex Corporation and the company grew to occupy 13 buildings.

Gene and Barb's life together, woven around his engineering career, her work as a homemaker, concert pianist, and choir director, also began to grow. After it became apparent that Barb couldn't conceive, they looked into adoption, and on February 15, 1962 a beautiful dark-haired baby girl who they named Kandi Renee joined the Bartlett family. On June 7, 1963, they welcomed a baby boy, David Pierce, and finally, on May 28, 1968, Thomas "Tom Tom" Eugene joined the Bartlett team. 

The height of Gene's aeronautical career was when Acurex contracted with NASA to perform heat shield analysis, which was Gene's expertise. Gene had to develop the scientific/ mathematical formulas and testing to allow for a complex combination of heat shield components, and he also created predictive models as to how the heat shield would perform when the crew module (space capsule) reentered the earth's atmosphere. A flight path too steep and the crew module would burn up, too shallow and the module would skip back out into space. Either extreme would be fatal to the crew. 

By the time Neil Armstrong landed the Apollo 11 lunar module and stepped off that ladder to set his foot on the moon's dusty gray surface, Gene was at the top of his game. He was Section Leader, Department Head and eventually Director of Technology, wearing several hats during the last couple of years with the company. Gene had a keen understanding of trends. By the time Apollo 17 landed on the moon's surface in 1972, Gene had already seen the writing on the wall. Soon after, all remaining Apollo moon missions were cancelled. Space exploration was transitioning to the Space Shuttle program, and Gene decided that after nearly 20 years of grinding, stressful competition in an extremely cutthroat industry, he had done, and seen, enough.

So, Gene decided to do what any brilliant research scientist at the top of their field would do. Buy a Bible Book Store and move back to Oregon. 

After a nation-wide search for a good place to raise a family, a lot of prayers and several consultation meetings with his Family CEO and Director of Personnel (Barb), Gene bought Kingsway Book Store in Springfield, Oregon and moved to the area in 1973. Gene eventually settled the family in a cozy ranch style house in the beautiful Mohawk Valley in Springfield, and began to lay down roots into the local area. Several years after the purchase of the Springfield store, Gene opened another store in Eugene. For the next 20 plus years, Gene operated a successful business that he treated like a ministry to the public and to area churches, with Barb and all three kids contributing by working in the stores in every aspect of the business.

Gene loved sports. While at Stanford, he fell in love with the football and basketball programs there, easily switching over to the Oregon Ducks when he moved the family back to Oregon. When Dad couldn't make it to the home games at Autzen Stadium in Eugene, he would listen to Jerry Allen, the beloved "Voice of the Ducks," on the radio, and he would often chart each play on a piece of paper lined out in a small 100 yard field, every yard line clearly labeled. One family memory is Gene sitting on the living room floor, listening to Jerry Allen call the plays, while Gene is charting every move, AND doing this while watching a game on TV. That's what you do when you are a research scientist, you graph, chart, and analyze. 

Gene and Barb were very giving people, opening their home to exchange students and even sponsoring international students through the years. They gave of themselves to their friends and to their community in so many ways.

Gene took the family on numerous camping trips to the mountains and the coast, including to Norway to see relatives and tour Europe before moving to Oregon in 1973. He even turned business trips into vacations, such as Disneyland during the Christian Bookseller's Association convention in Anaheim. In 1979, Gene loaded the family into the 1977 Chevy Kingsway van, which he had converted to a camping van with a fridge, folding couch and small table, and drove clear across the U.S. to Virginia Beach, Virginia to attend a celebration and convention of sorts at the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN). 

Gene and Barb sold the business in the mid '90s and began a new chapter in his life as a retiree, with trips across the country and winters in Desert Hot Springs, California. In 1996 they sold their home in the Mohawk Valley and moved into a brand new home at Summerfield Estates in West Eugene.

After Barb was diagnosed with Alzheimer's around 2007, the disease slowly progressing until her death in 2012, Gene continued to grieve for several more years. After he decided that he still could love again (and didn’t want to be alone), he found Sylvia Maga., a successful businesswoman from the Philipines. Gene and Sylvia married in 2015, and she became his faithful, loving, and devoted companion. Sylvia is a wonderful woman and she adored Gene, providing her love, care and compassion for him daily, especially as his health started to fail in 2020. Sylvia M. is part of the Bartlett family and is very dearly loved.

A viewing for Gene will be December 26th, from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm at Andreason’s Cremation and Burial Service, 320 6th St, Springfield, OR (541) 485-6659. The family plans to have a Celebration of Life service in January or February. In lieu of flowers, contributions can be made [TO BE ANNOUNCED].