Keith Lee Englander

Keith Lee Englander

1953-2024

(Keith Lee Englander, photo from The US National Archives)

A Kind and Caring leader with a great sense of Humor. A Leader everyone wanted to be around, A gentle giant of significance for the Nation and the World in bringing our Missile Defense capabilities to deployment and operational. A Legacy, A Legend and testament to System Engineering. 


Keith Englander joined the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization BMDO in 1992, at the onset of the National Missile Defense program. That program was hotly debated by our Allies, our Congress, Academia, Think Tanks, and DoD Critics who believed Missile Defense was not technically feasible nor stabilizing. Keith had a quiet demeanor of strength through rational unemotional thought and many of those critics had mistaken that for a lack of confidence or assertiveness, but the complete opposite was true. Keith was the technical systems engineer, a quiet giant at the right place at the right time for the right reasons to birth GMD and bring it to operational reliability.

 

Keith led the organization at its engineering core under multiple BMDO and MDA Directors as the Technical Director of BMDO and MDA in the face of intense skepticism of the technical merit and controversy over Missile Defense of the past few decades. Keith Englander led with unshakable belief, American True Grit and Relentless Resolve.


The GMD system and its 44 GBI interceptors in Fort Greely Alaska and Vandenberg California defending our nation today would not exist today without Keith Englander.


God Bless Keith Englander 


Mr. Englander’s obituary