Mieczyslaw Gregory Bekker was born in Strzyzow, Poland back in 1905. I do not have any information as to who his parents were or his early childhood. What I can tell you is in 1929, he graduated from the Warsaw Technical University.
After graduation, he worked for the Polish Ministry of Military Affairs from 1931-1939. His job was to work on systems for tracked vehicles on uneven ground. In 1939, he moved to France. The Government of Canada offered him a job so he moved again to Ottawa to work in the armored vehicle research. In 1943, he joined the Canadian Army working as a researcher reaching the rank of lieutenant colonel. He was decommissioned in 1956 when he moved once again to the United States.
He worked as an assistant professor at the University of Michigan and the Army Vehicle Laboratory in Detroit. He was a leading specialist in theory and design of military and off-the-road vehicles. He died in Santa Barbara in 1989, he was 79.
What you may not know about Mieczyslaw is that he co-authored the general idea and contributed to the design of the Lunar Roving Vehicle. It was used by mission Apollo 15, 16 and 17 on the Moon. He held several patents on inventions in the area of off-the-road vehicles, including those for extraterrestrial use.
Until tomorrow give someone the free gift of a smile
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