Bernard “Bernie” E. Waghorne was born on December, 19 1932 in Wichita Falls, Texas. He passed away on September, 24, 2017 in McKinney, Texas. Bernard graduated from Wichita Falls High School where he was a member of the National Honor Society and president of the Footlight Players Club. He played on state championship high school football teams of 1949 and 1950.
In his years at university, Bernard worked on aerospace electronics projects after classes and during the summers he worked in petroleum exploration. He was awarded the Bachelor of Science degree in geology from the University of Oklahoma in 1957.
He was hired by a test equipment company in Dallas in 1956, where he designed electrical and instrumentation systems for aerospace and geosciences projects and served as design engineer, field engineer, project engineer, and project manager on test facility projects at the Air Force Academy, Arnold Engineering Development Center, Alameda Naval Air Station, and at Rocketdyne’s H-1 rocket engine test facilities in Neosho, Missouri before accepting a position at Rocketdyne, Canoga Park, CA.
Assigned as Design Engineer in Rocketdyne’s facilities group, he designed instrumentation and electrical control systems for testing the F-1 rocket engines used in the Saturn V launch vehicles adopted by NASA for the Apollo project. Richard Gompertz, one of Wernher von Braun’s group of transplanted rocket specialists, brought Bernard to Edwards Air Force Base in 1960 where he organized, documented, and coordinated activation and operation of test stand electrical control systems for transfer to the Engineer-In-Charge of each rocket engine test stand.
In addition, he conducted training for the Digital Data Acquisition System in R&D Test Area as well as coordinating its installation and activation. After coordinating systems design criteria for the new Production Test Area and managing the completion, checkout, activation and operation of the Production Test Area instrumentation systems, he was promoted to Instrumentation Supervisor of Production Test Area and Instrument Laboratory before leaving Rocketdyne in 1966 for General Dynamics’s Research and Engineering (after having met Charlie Massey, who was later promoted to head the new computer division at GD) where he planned and coordinated development of computer-based management systems for new business programs while attending evening graduate school in both Southern Methodist University’s engineering program and Texas Christian University’s business management - computer science program. He was a member of the International Honor Society and was awarded the Master of Management Science degree from TCU in 1971.
Bernard was promoted to Manager of Administration and Finance in the Fort Worth office of the new Corporate Data Systems Division of General Dynamics where he was responsible for integrating and managing computer systems in divisions throughout the USA and Canada. He developed and managed annual budgets, long-range plans, computer and programming rates, government interfaces, and financial and administrative affairs of a four hundred employee operation.
Resigning from GD in 1978 to pursue real estate development, he obtained a real estate license, acquired, developed, and sold land, and designed and built a mountaintop vacation home completed in 1980 when he accepted Sun Exploration and Production’s offer of the Engineering Manager of Systems and Controls position in Tulsa. In the same year he was promoted to Manager of Exploration Planning in the Dallas office where he developed annual budgets and long-range plans for an eight hundred employee domestic and international petroleum exploration program. He coordinated financial and systems development plans, geoscience workstation developments, and proposed and gained approval for a multi-million dollar supercomputer system and computer aided mapping systems supporting domestic and international exploration and recovery. He ultimately became Sun Exploration and Production’s, and later Oryx Energy’s, International Manager of Systems in London.
Bernard spent his retirement in screenplay writing (Desert Sailor/Care of Mr Waghorn, The Red Onion/Demon Rum) and in genealogical research documenting both his and his wife’s lineage through the royal lines of Europe as far back as Charlemagne (A.D. 742-814).
During his thirty-six year professional journey he believed that the support and encouragement from his wife, children, hiring managers, co-workers, and the employees he was fortunate to lead, played the major role in his successes. Key players in his professional journey were Jim Biggs, Phil LaClair, Keith Hegeman, Chick Latch, Reed Seaton, Earl Boling, Frank Will, “Hoot” Kaufman, Don Huckaby, Jay Petry, Jim Limes, Skip Sidner, Shallie Bey, Jim McCormick, and Bob Keiser.
Bernard believed his most rewarding roles were those of loyal husband, father, and grandfather. He was preceded in death by his father, Sydney Waghorne (owner of Humphrey Printing in Wichita Falls), in 1950, mother, Jessie Vaughn Waghorne (owner of Toy Castle in Wichita Falls), in 2000; son, Mark in 2001 and son-in-law, Eric Peck in 2010. He is survived by his wife, Betty; sons, Steve and Jason; daughter, Holly Peck; grandson, Austin Peck; granddaughters, Erica Waghorne and Danielle Peck; brothers, Syd and Al; sister, Cherry Phillips; and many nephews and nieces.
A celebration of his life will be held graveside at 10:00 a.m., Sunday, October 1, 2017 at Big Springs Cemetery, 6538 N. Jupiter Rd., Garland, Texas 75044.