Robert F. Yonash

Yonash's father immigrated from Bohemia, which was then a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, arriving at Ellis Island on September 5, 1908.

His mother descended from immigrants of Denmark and Luxembourg, who settled in Iowa and later moved to Wadena.

Robert F. Yonash (February 7, 1919 – April 19, 1997) was an American engineer in the early days of the aircraft industry.

He was a member of the start-up management team for the Texas Engineering & Manufacturing Company (TEMCO), which eventually became the "T" in the conglomerate Ling-Temco-Vought (LTV).

He was the co-founder, with Harold Silver, of the Intercontinental Manufacturing Company (IMCO), which is currently owned by General Dynamics.

Yonash made an important contribution to the aircraft industry after World War II by finding ways to ease the transition from wartime production to a consumer-based economy, as well as from an aircraft industry to the military-industrial complex that characterized the Cold War.

Following his career in the aircraft industry, Yonash was an entrepreneur in Sonoma County, California, for nearly forty years.

Bob Yonash was the firstborn child and only son of Frank Yonash and Esther Mary Jacobsen.

At the time of his birth on February 7, 1919, his parents resided on a homestead near Plevna, Montana.

His mother went to her mother's home in Wadena, Minnesota, for his birth.

In 1927, the Yonash family moved to the Los Angeles, California, area where they managed an apartment house for several years before settling on a farm in Bellflower, California.

Yonash attended Downey high school where analytical and spherical geometry were among his favorite subjects.

His least favorite topics were chemistry and physics labs.

Before he was 17 years old, he was skilled at welding aluminum, and used this expertise to repair the aluminum tail cones of racing cars, which were powered by outboard motors.

A frequent driver tactic created opportunity for him to practice his welding skills.

Drivers would run a car onto the tail cone of the car ahead, rendering the lead car's steering inoperative and resulting in continuous damage to the aluminum tail cones.

From race cars to aircraft was a logical step.

Following high school he attended college for a year.

Yonash married three times.

His first wife was Gwendolyn Tull, mother of his daughter Robin.

She was the daughter of Frank Tull of Kansas and Zella Cox of Illinois.

The marriage ended in divorce after six years.

He then married Virginia Doerr, the socialite daughter of R. Edward Blaney Doerr, president of the Murray Gin Company in Dallas, and Louise Nelms.

They had a son Richard.

Yonash was a drop hammer operator at Vultee Airplane Development Corporation in Downey, California from May 26, 1936, to September 25, 1936.

This was his first job outside of the family.

In May 1936, he was 17 and the Great Depression was still going on.

He began work in the aluminum stamping department.

Here he worked as a drop hammer operator's assistant, The parts produced in this department were pre-formed shapes for various sections of the fuselage and wings.

This marriage lasted until his wife's death in 1975.

His final marriage, to Jan Robbins, endured until his death.

In early 1997, following nearly forty years as a Sonoma County entrepreneur, Bob moved to the Fircrest Convalescent Hospital in Sebastopol, California, where he died on April 19, 1997, at age 78.

Yonash got involved in the aircraft industry just as the transition from fabric and wood frames to metal was in its early stages.

When he started his first job, powered flight had been a reality for less than 33 years.

In an oral history shortly before his death, Yonash recalled how he got his start in the aircraft industry.

"It was the middle of the Great Depression, and I had just unloaded a boxcar load of Borax with a wheelbarrow and shovel. It took me three days and I was paid three dollars, which was a good wage for the time: one man, one day, one dollar.

"On my way home I noticed a line of men outside a factory, so I stopped and got in line as you did during the Depression. I asked one of the guys in line who was hiring and he said, “Vultee Aviation.” I thought, “What do I know about airplanes?” I did have a little experience with aluminum welding, although at the time I didn't know I couldn't have passed their certification test.

"The guy two in front of me, when asked what he was, said, “Aluminum welder.” Their response was, “Sorry, we have all the welders we need.” When they came to the guy in front of me, he said, “Sheet metal worker.” They asked, “Can you read a blueprint?” and when he said “no,” they dismissed him too.

"When they asked me, I said “I’m a sheet metal worker.” When they asked, “Can you read a blueprint?” I answered, “Of course,” which was true. After a quick test of my blueprint-reading skills, they hired me and said, “Show up Monday with your tools.” So I went home, took an empty fish tackle box, and filled it with everything that might be construed to be a sheet metal-working tool. When I showed up for work the foreman asked me, “Can you run a nibbler?” I said, “Sure, where is it?” Luckily it was a fairly simple machine for blanking sheet metal parts, and it was relatively easy to master.

"Shortly thereafter, I moved into the drop hammer department."