Robert James Huston

Robert James Huston, 93, of Yorktown, VA departed this life and was reunited with his favorite person, Laura, on August 29, 2024.Robert was born April 30, 1931 in Riley County, Kansas, to John Caleb Huston and Alberta Mae Smith Huston. He developed a love for airplanes at an early age and often described his life as a “love affair with flight”. He got his first job as a line boy at the local airport by following an airplane across the fields to its destination. During his teen years, he also worked as a theatre usher where he developed a lifelong appreciation for motion pictures and theatre – he played the lead in his high school production of Heaven Can Wait. Following his first solo flight (on his 16th birthday), he worked for Mooney Aircraft in Kansas, and continued to work for them until he joined the US Air Force. He later completed a full circle by seeing in 2016 the plane he worked on, N3199K, displayed at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, DC.
Upon joining the Air Force, Robert was first stationed in Greenville, South Carolina, where he met Annie Laura Bailey. They were married in 1952 and remained happily together until her death in 2018. Their first happy years of marriage were spent in Morfelden, Germany. They moved back to Kansas in 1954, where Robert obtained his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Aeronautical Engineering from the University of Kansas. After graduation, he accepted an offer to work for NASA in 1958 and the couple moved to Hampton, where they adopted their daughter Suzanne in 1968.
Robert worked for NASA Langley Research Center until his retirement in 1992, spending most of 1972 at Stanford University participating in the Sloan Fellowship program. He was involved in several projects for NASA including the RSRA (Rotor Systems Research Aircraft) and Carbon Fiber Impact Study. Later in his career, he served as assistant Director for Structures at NASA and editor for the American Helicopter Society (AHS) Journal. He was involved in the AHS from the mid 1970s through his retirement, and could still find mistakes in formulas when reading them upside down!
Robert loved reading, watching movies, kayaking, talking with his daughter on the phone, telling stories and giving presentations. He loved God and was a devoted Christian, incredibly generous to his family, friends and causes he cared about.
Robert was preceded in death by his parents, his wife Laura, his brother John Chester Huston (and wife Lucy), his sister Pauline Huston Wilkins (and her children Warren and Linda), nephew John E. Huston, and all of his wife’s 6 siblings and their spouses. He is survived by daughter Suzanne Huston Brown and her husband Bil, granddaughters Carolina Rivera (Eliezer), Stephany Hernandez, Stephanie Nicasio and April Baillio, “grand-dogs” Blue and Skye Brown, and over 100 descendants of his and his wife’s siblings.
A celebration of Robert’s life will be held at Amory Funeral Home on Saturday, October 26 at 2:00 pm. Friends, please bring memories and stories to share! The family requests that donations in his memory be made to Kakenya’s Dream, www.Kakenyasdream.org.