Distinguished Engineer
Hometown: Lake City
Electrical Engineering,
In addition to earning a degree from South Dakota State University, Curtis Brudos received a Master of Science degree in Engineering in 1965 from the University of California (UCLA). He was employed in the defense and space electronics business for 12 years before joining Martin Marietta.
He was awarded two patents as a result of developing the first digital color television system at RCA in 1960s. He joined Martin Marietta Astronautics at Denver in 1971 and was manager of ground systems for NASA’s first Mars spacecraft, the Viking Lander, for which he won the company’s top award, the Jefferson Cup. While managing a central department of approximately 100 engineers, he also managed the company’s efforts on the Checkout, Control and Monitoring System for the Launch Processing System at the Kennedy Space Center.
He was awarded the Martin Marietta Jefferson Cup for the second time in 1982 for the successful acquisition of new business in the field of tactical command, control and communications systems for the nation’s armed forces. Brudos held the position of information systems director at the corporate headquarters of Martin Marietta and Lockheed Martin in Bethesda, Maryland from 1990 to 1995. He retired from Lockheed Martin in Denver in 1998 as the director of ground systems after serving that company and its predecessor Martin Marietta, for 27 years. He was a professional engineer in the state of Colorado, a senior member of the IEEE, and served on the board of directors for the SDSU Foundation from 1999 to 2008. Curtis’s wife, Phyllis, received her degree in English from SDSU in 1959.