Obituaries

Survivors include a son from the first marriage, Stefan C. Long of Arlington; and four stepchildren from the second marriage, Harry Green of Washington and Richard Green, Thomas Green and Suzanne Hofe, all of Richmond; two grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.

Harold D. HoekstraAeronautical Engineer

Harold D. Hoekstra, 103, a retired aviation expert with the Federal Aviation Administration, died of cardiopulmonary arrest Oct. 10 at Sunrise at Bluemont Park, an assisted living community in Arlington. He had lived in Arlington since 1941.

Mr. Hoekstra was born in Chicago and grew up in Battle Creek, Mich. At 8, he watched in awe as a barnstorming Wright Brothers biplane took off from a baseball field in Battle Creek. That experience inspired a career and a lifelong fascination with flight.

He graduated from the University of Michigan in 1929 with a bachelor's degree in aeronautical engineering and, in the early 1930s, worked for several aviation companies in the Midwest and Upstate New York.

In 1936, he took a job with the FAA, where his primary responsibilities involved establishing safety standards for commercial aircraft. Later, at the onset of the jet age, he was responsible for working with many international aviation agencies to establish safety standards for jet-powered civil aircraft.

He was awarded a number of patents and was elected a Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, the Society of Automotive Engineers and the British Royal Aeronautical Society. He also was elected to the Tau Beta Pi national engineering honorary society.

Mr. Hoekstra retired in 1969. During his long retirement, he had three hobbies, a son said -- "airplanes, airplanes and more airplanes." On family vacations, he visited airports, and at home he read aviation magazines. He had held a commercial pilot's license, and he continued to fly private planes until age 85.

He also was an inveterate writer of letters to the editor. In a 1983 letter to Aviation Week & Space Technology, he remarked that the $20.5 billion price tag for 100 B-1B bombers could provide housing for more than 1.5 million people. "Too bad we don't seem to be able to switch more effort from swords to plowshares," he wrote.

In a 1983 Aviation Week letter, he proposed runway traffic lights to prevent landing and takeoff collisions.

His wife, Laura Hoekstra, died in 1992.

Survivors include four children, Elizabeth Hoekstra of Wilkes-Barre, Pa., Thomas Hoekstra of Midlothian, Va., Ann Hoekstra of North Huntingdon, Pa., and Dirk Hoekstra of Los Altos, Calif.; nine grandchildren; and 10 great-grandchildren.