Edward Forman

Edward S. Forman (1912 to 1973) was an early American rocket pioneer and a co-founder of Aerojet. Born in Chicago, he spent his teenage years in Pasadena, where he met Jack Parsons and shared his interest in science fiction and space travel. The two began experiments with chemical explosives in the Arroyo Seco and joined Frank Malina, a Caltech student, under the interest of Professor Theodor von Karman. Parsons worked in chemistry while Forman supplied the machinery. In 1943 he became one of the five founders of Aerojet and its first Production Manager, finding or making the parts for the company's rockets and assembling them into working engines. After General Tire took over Aerojet in 1944 and the original founders were pushed out, he moved to San Mateo and worked for Lockheed for the rest of his life, contributing to the Polaris and Poseidon sea-launched ballistic missile programs. He died on 12 February 1973.