In passing

Edward N. Hall, 91; rocket expert

Los Angeles Col. Edward N. Hall, the U.S. Air Force’s foremost rocket expert who is widely considered the father of the Minuteman intercontinental ballistic missile program that is the core of this country’s missile defense, died Jan. 15. He was 91.

The solid-fuel rocket technology that he helped develop was subsequently used in most other U.S. missiles, including the Polaris, the Titan III and IV and the boosters on the space shuttle.

Hall studied chemical engineering at City College of New York, but couldn’t find a job after graduation, so he enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, he was commissioned a second lieutenant and sent to England, where he supervised the repair and maintenance of Boeing B-17 bombers.

He developed an interest in rocketry when he was sent to the captured V-2 factory near Nordhausen in north-central Germany when the Nazis surrendered in May 1945.

He was subsequently assigned to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio. Early U.S. rockets were liquid fueled, typically operating on a mixture of liquid oxygen and alcohol or kerosene. But these compounds were sufficiently unstable that the rockets could not be kept fueled and ready for launch.

Hall’s work was crucial in the development of the Bomarc, Navajo, Snark, Rascal and Falcon missiles, as well as the Atlas and Titan I ICBMs. But he ultimately recognized the futility of trying to build bigger and better liquid-fueled engines and switched to work on solid fuels in 1957.

Eldon Dedini, 84; magazine cartoonist

Carmel Valley, Calif. Eldon Dedini, prolific cartoonist for Playboy and The New Yorker whose subjects included lusty satyrs and curvaceous nymphs, thrifty witches, elegant automobiles and even broccoli, has died. He was 84.

Dedini died Jan. 12 at his home in Carmel Valley, Calif., of esophageal cancer, said his niece, Arlene Dedini Anderson.

The artist, who produced 50 preliminary cartoons every three weeks, drew 630 panels for The New Yorker from 1950 to 2005 and 1,200 for Playboy from 1959 to 2005.

He was named best magazine cartoonist by the National Cartoonists Society in 1958, 1961, 1964 and 1989.

Dedini, a native of King City, Calif., spent most of his life on the Monterey Peninsula and painted elegant watercolor or acrylic posters for Pebble Beach’s Concours d’Elegance vintage auto show and for the Monterey Jazz Festival.

Thomas A. Murphy, 90; General Motors CEO

Boynton Beach, Fla. Thomas A. Murphy, who was General Motors Corp.’s chairman and CEO as the company shifted to smaller, more fuel-efficient cars in the 1970s, died Wednesday in Boynton Beach, Fla.

He was 90. Murphy died of natural causes at a hospital, GM spokesman Brian Akre said.

Murphy was named chairman and CEO on Dec. 1, 1974, and led the world’s largest automaker until his retirement on Jan. 1, 1981.

His tenure began a year after the Arab oil embargo led to a sudden shift in demand for small, fuel-efficient cars in the United States. That led to a radical downsizing of the next generation of GM cars, and a large-scale shift to front-wheel-drive powertrains.

GM reached its all-time sales record in the United States of nearly 7.1 million cars and trucks in 1978, with Murphy at the helm.

Murphy served as a GM director until May 1988.