Richard A. Croxall ('63, Mechanical Engineering)

Richard A. Croxall

Vice President & Chief Engineer (Ret.), Northrop Grumman Corporation

BS Mechanical Engineering, Cal Poly Pomona, 1963

Richard A. Croxall began his engineering career with a summer internship at Giannini Controls Corporation, working in the advanced gyrocompass area. After graduating from Cal Poly Pomona, he was hired full-time by the company as a project engineer. He then moved to TRW Systems Group, Space Park where his assignments included developing a guidance and control subsystem on a major space surveillance program. His 39 year Space Park career included several key leadership roles including director of Mission System Engineering for all of TRW space systems and vice president of Mission Assurance.

“I was one of the few recent engineering grads who could work with the leading scientists and technologists of the time because of my practical solutions to their advanced technology concepts and also develop advanced space system architectures, mostly due to my broad Cal Poly Pomona engineering background,” Dick says. “I relied on that education for my entire career.”

When TRW was acquired by Northrop Grumman in 2002, Dick was appointed sector vice president and chief engineer for the newly formed space systems sector.

Dick was founding executive sponsor for the TRW/Northorp Grumman Women’s Network Group and the executive sponsor of Adelante, the TRW Hispanic Network, and the Native American Caucus.