Arthur Kovitz, professor emeritus of mechanical engineering at Northwestern University, died April 30, 2018, at the age of 89.
The son of Polish-Jewish émigrés who came to the United States in the mid-1920s, Kovitz earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Michigan in 1950 and 1951, respectively. He was then a research engineer for a year at the Bell Aircraft Corp. in Buffalo, N.Y.
He earned a Ph.D. in aeronautical engineering from Princeton in 1957. After a year at Princeton as a research assistant, Kovitz joined the mechanical engineering department at Northwestern.
His research centered on problems in fluid mechanics with an emphasis on fluid interfaces, combustion, and heat transfer in aircraft and rocket engines. He retired in 2001.
Kovitz is survived by his wife, Valerie, whom he married in 1957; two children; and one granddaughter.
Graduate memorials are prepared by the APGA.