Henry Albert Dihm, Jr.

by Lynn McMillen
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Henry Albert Dihm, Jr.Henry Albert Dihm, Jr. of Huntsville, passed away on November 27, 2019 after a brief illness. He was 91 and had been a resident of Huntsville for over 60 years. He was preceded in death by his father, Henry A. Dihm, Sr. and mother, Mabel Manes Dihm. He is survived by his wife of 65 years, Vonda Fairbanks Dihm; son, Henry A Dihm III; daughter, Katharine Isola (Wesley) of Tampa, FL; daughter-in-law, Cheryl; and granddaughter, Rachel Dihm of Mission Viejo, CA.

Henry was born and raised in Dallas TX. He attended Terrill Preparatory School, where he was an early member of the Young Life evangelical Christian organization, graduating in 1944. He received a BS in mathematics from Southern Methodist University in 1948, where he became a member of the Lambda Chi Alpha social fraternity. He received an MA in mathematics from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor in 1950. He was employed until 1953 in seismic exploration geophysics where he rose to the position of party chief. His work took him to Montana, the Dakotas and several other states. He met his wife-to-be, Vonda Fairbanks, while working in Ardmore, OK. He was drafted into the Army in 1953 and stationed at Ft. Bliss, TX where he was a member of the Combat Development Department of the AAA&GM School; he worked primarily on nuclear warhead requirements for Nike Hercules and overall military requirements for Hawk.
After mustering out of the Army in 1955, he became a civilian employee in the Army Missile Command at Redstone Arsenal, working in rocket and guided missile RDT&E activities. During his Government years, he was involved with almost all new Army rocket and missile weapon developments and was Deputy Director of the Advanced Systems Laboratory for 15 years. His main contributions were in comparative system performance and effectiveness analysis, working together with many esteemed colleagues. He represented MICOM R&D on several major DA/OSD/NATO study groups and received many commendations. His principal efforts were concentrated on Patriot, Hawk III, Littlejohn, Lance, Stinger, Chaparral, FAAD C2, ARM countermeasures, and Theater Missile Defense. After civil service retirement in 1984, he became a consultant systems analyst working primarily on Patriot PAC 2 and the tri-national Meads program until final retirement in 2008.

He enjoyed swimming, tennis, reading books on all subjects, including literature from Homer on, and had a lifelong affection for the music of Mozart and Beethoven.

A graveside service will be held at 1 p.m. Tuesday, December 3rd at Maple Hill Cemetery.

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