Robert Wertheim

Robert "Bob" Wertheim (9 November 1922 – 29 April 2020) was an American naval officer involved in the development of strategic weapons. Senator Robert Byrd described him as "the Navy's leading authority on strategic missiles". Joseph Wertheim died on 4 January 1950; some of his papers have been archived in the Harriet Rochlin Collection of Western Jewish History at the University of California, Los Angeles. Emma died in November 1982, having continued to run an insurance business named after Joseph with their daughter Jeanette until her death. Jeanette, who later married Norman E. Sparks in 1956, died in 2004. Robert graduated from Carlsbad High School. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, he enrolled into the New Mexico Military Institute; At the Naval Academy, he competed on the school's fencing team. He graduated with honors in 1945, and he was commissioned as an ensign upon graduation as part of an accelerated wartime program. In 1954, Wertheim enrolled at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, earning a master's degree in nuclear physics. In June 1956, Wertheim was assigned to the United States Navy Special Projects Office, originally part of the Bureau of Ordnance, where he stayed until June 1961. During that time he continued the work he began in 1955, heading the Re-Entry Body Section, receiving the Navy Commendation Medal for his efforts. Chaparral being the name for a roadrunner in Mexican Spanish, the state bird for Wertheim's home state. Wertheim was involved in the Skybolt project, and its cancelation during his time working for the Director of Defense Research and Engineering. That year, he was awarded the Rear Admiral William S. Parsons Award by the Navy League of the United States. In 1977, he was elected as a member of the National Academy of Engineering, and he became the Director of the Strategic Systems Projects. In April 1979, Senator Robert Byrd said that Wertheim "is the Navy's leading authority on strategic missiles"; in addition to work on the Polaris and Poseidon missiles, Wertheim had also made significant contributions to the development of the Trident missile family. During his career Wertheim was also awarded a second Navy Distinguished Service Medal, Legion of Merit, and the Defense Meritorious Service Medal. In 1980, Wertheim finally retired from the United States Navy. In 1983, along with several other dozen retired flag officers, they took out a full-page advertisement in the Washington Times condemning retired Rear Admiral Gene La Rocque for appearing on Soviet Union television and himself condemning the defense policy of the United States. In 1987, the New Mexico Military Institute inducted him into their hall of fame.

Beginning in 1988, Wertheim became a private consultant with Science Applications International Corporation. In 2005, the alumni association of the Naval Academy awarded him their Distinguished Graduate Award Medal. (That same year, the Distinguished Graduate Award Medal was given to Slade Cutter, Ronald J.) Hays, and Ross Perot. In 2008, he was a member of the Defense Science Board's Permanent Task Force on Nuclear Weapons Surety. Wertheim was also a recipient of the Secretary of Defense Medal for Outstanding Public Service and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Joint Distinguished Civilian Service Award.

Personal life and death In April 1946, Wertheim became engaged to Barbara Louis Selig of West Los Angeles; they married in December 1946. By 2005, Wertheim had remarried, to Joan Levin. In 2005, Wertheim spoke to The New Mexico Jewish Historical Society. In 2012, his son Joseph died in Pittsburgh. On 29 April 2020, Wertheim died; he was buried in Section 11 of Miramar National Cemetery.