In a career with General Electric Co. spanning 41 years, Archie H. Perugi won respect and admiration as an engineer, inventor and manager whose projects ran the gamut from jet engine design to ballistic missile guidance and power generation.
Mr. Perugi, 83, died yesterday (Jan. 15) in a Boston hospital following a long illness. He and his wife, Norma, who survives him, had lived in Niskayuna, NY, a suburb of Schenectady, since he joined General Electric’s Gas Turbine Division in 1973.
He retired in 1983 as Manager for Engineering of the Energy Application Program Department.
Born in New York City in 1921, Mr. Perugi was the son of a sculptor from the famous marble-producing region of Carrara, Italy, who met his wife, Lea Battani, in Vermont while on a business trip.
After receiving an engineering degree from Pratt Institute in New York in 1942, he joined GE in Schenectady and worked on a wide variety of engineering jobs. Among others, he served as a consultant to the Manhattan Project, contributing to the uranium enrichment process required for the first atomic bomb.
It was in Schenectady that he met his wife, a nurse, while hospitalized for a skiing accident.
In 1950, Mr. Perugi moved to Beverly, Mass., joining what is now the Aircraft Engine Business Group, and led the development of new turbine design methods. From 1952 to 1963 he worked at the GE facility in Evendale, Ohio, where he directed efforts in improving turbines and became a manager of turbomachinery aerodynamics. Some of his innovations in aircraft engine turbine design remain in use today.
Moving to the Philadelphia GE facility in 1963, Mr. Perugi first served as a systems manager for research on ballistic missiles that could be maneuvered as they dropped toward their targets - a significant engineering challenge. He received an Air Force commendation following the successful test of a maneuverable re-entry vehicle. He subsequently managed a group developing military and civilian projects involving ocean systems, and also managed development of a re-entry body for the TRIDENT missile system.
Returning to Schenectady in 1973, Mr. Perugi managed design and development engineers for various projects in the Gas Turbine Products Division, and became manager of Combustion Engineering, overseeing a staff of 90.
“Archie was always a great person to work for,” recalled Ted Alderson, a retired GE colleague, who knew Mr. Perugi or worked for him in three GE divisions. “He was a very complete and thorough engineer, and he was great to go over engineering ideas with because his knowledge and background were wonderful.”
Mr. Perugi was known by his many friends for his brilliance in mathematics and engineering; his wide interests; and an array of hobbies, each of which alone could have consumed someone of lesser energies and curiosity. Among them were winemaking, fine carpentry, gourmet cooking, gardening, and darkroom photography.
In addition to his wife, Mr. Perugi is survived by his sister, Violet Slate, of Mashpee, Mass.; two daughters, Pamela Perugi Marraccini of Charlottesville, Va.; Deborah Perugi Saltus of Newton, Mass.; and four grandchildren.
The funeral will be held on Wed Jan 19 from the Eaton & Mackay Funeral Home 465 Centre St Newton Corner at 9:15 AM followed by a Mass of Christian Burial in Our Lady Help of Chriastians Church, Newton at 10:30 AM. A visiting hour will be held in the funeral home Wed prior to the mass from 9:15 until10:15. Interment will follow in Newton Cemetery.
Donations in memory of Mr. Perugi may be directed to the National Aphasia Association, 7 Day St., Suite 600, New York, NY 10007.
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