Elmer Frykman trained aviators, astronauts

Elmer Frykman, who once was responsible for training pilots and astronauts who used Honeywell aviation equipment, was the founder of the company's retiree volunteers group.

Frykman, who served that program as an unpaid, full-time volunteer for many years, died Jan. 25 at his St. Louis Park home. He was 93.

In 1999, he received the Daily Points of Light Award, one of several honors for his service.

Jerry Seavey of Brooklyn Center, a retired Honeywell executive and retiree volunteer, said Frykman believed that after you retire "you can still make use of the knowledge and experience that you have to help the community."

"He drove the program; he made things work," said Seavey, who added that Frykman led or helped lead the group from 1979 to 2004.

In its early days, he led the effort to develop a screening process that has matched hundreds of retiree volunteers with nonprofit groups.

Frykman was instrumental in bringing programs to those at the women's prison in Shakopee and providing prosthetic devices for the needy, said his son Bruce, of Elk River.

After graduation from Minneapolis' Central High School in the early 1930s, he attended St. Olaf College in Northfield and graduated with a bachelor's degree in physics and mathematics from Minneapolis' Augsburg College.

For a few years, he taught at the old Montrose High School and served as its principal.

During World War II, he was a Honeywell employee, attached to the Army Air Forces in the Pacific Theater. He taught bomber pilots how to use Honeywell-made auto-pilot equipment.

After the war, he returned to Minneapolis, where he led Honeywell's Aeronautics School, whose staff members trained company engineers, military personnel and civilians in the use and maintenance of Honeywell aviation equipment.

His staff trained Apollo mission astronauts and others in the use of Honeywell-made stabilization control system for the nation's space vehicles headed to the moon.

In 1967, while on leave from Honeywell, he worked several months in India for Dunwoody and the U.S. Agency for International Development, helping India develop an education system for electronics instructors.

"It was a big eye-opener, and it changed his perspective on life," Bruce Frykman said. "He was fascinated. I think there was something spiritual that grabbed him about India."

In addition to Bruce, he is survived by his wife of 69 years, Elma, of St. Louis Park; sons Harvey of Northfield and John of Minneapolis; a sister, Bernice, of Arden Hills, and three grandchildren.