In passing

George C. Watkins, 84; test pilot for Navy

Washington Capt. George C. Watkins, a record-setting Navy test pilot in the 1950s who later served as a White House social aide to three presidents, died of a heart attack Sept. 18 at a hospital in Lompoc, Calif., where he lived. He was 84.

Watkins, who had no intention of becoming an aviator when he entered the Navy during World War II, had a dashing career as a test pilot, setting records for speed, altitude and number of landings on aircraft carriers. Late in his military career, he was an adviser for the World War II movie “Tora! Tora! Tora!” and flew a Japanese plane in the 1970 film.

After graduating from the Naval Academy in 1943, he planned to be a shipboard naval officer, and he served in the Pacific during World War II as a battery turret officer on the battleship Pennsylvania. But when the Navy, finding itself short of pilots, issued a call for aviators, Watkins quickly volunteered. He received his pilot’s wings just after the end of the war.

In 1950, he entered the Navy’s test pilot school in Patuxent River, Md., where two of his classmates were future astronauts John Glenn and Alan Shepard. Watkins served in the Korean War as a fighter pilot before resuming his career as one of the leading test pilots of the fearless and swashbuckling generation chronicled by Tom Wolfe in the book “The Right Stuff.” His fellow aviators called him “Gorgeous George.”

Watkins was the first Navy pilot to exceed both 60,000 and 70,000 feet in altitude. On a single day in 1956, he set a speed record of 1,220 mph and an unofficial altitude record of 73,500 feet. In April 1958, he piloted his Grumman F11F-1F Super Tiger to two altitude records in three days, topping out at 76,939 feet and returning the record to American hands after an absence of 14 years.

For much of the 1960s, Watkins was stationed at the Pentagon in the Strike Warfare Division. Among other duties, he was a social aide at the White House under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson. He helped at White House functions, organized reception lines and assisted in other preparations, including plans for Kennedy’s funeral in 1963.

In 1965, when Watkins became commanding officer of a supply ship off the coast of Vietnam, he promptly ordered the helicopter supply drops to be made at night, which soon became common Navy practice. He later worked at the Navy’s information office at the Pentagon and resumed his duties in the White House under Johnson and President Nixon.

Jerry Juhl, 67; wrote for ‘Muppet Show’

San Francisco Jerry Juhl, who was the head writer for “The Muppet Show” before he co-created “Fraggle Rock,” died at a hospital on Sept. 27. He was 67.

Juhl became the first full-time employee of Jim Henson Co. in 1961 after meeting Henson at a puppeteers convention.

The company coined the term “Muppet,” a combination of the words marionette and puppet, and created a series of short skits parodying television newspeople.

Juhl worked on Henson’s first television show, “Sam and Friends,” as a puppeteer and later spent six years writing for “Sesame Street” after its 1969 premiere.

He created scripts for the Cookie Monster, Oscar the Grouch, Big Bird, Elmo, Bert, Ernie and The Count. He also created Super Grover, a superhero version of Grover, and received two Emmy Awards for his work.

Juhl served as head writer for “The Muppet Show” from 1977-1981.

He also was the writer and creative producer of “Fraggle Rock,” which featured his wife as a writer and script editor. The show was met with critical acclaim when it appeared on HBO in 1983 and lasted four years.