ARNOLD AIR FORCE BASE, Tenn. -- AEDC Fellow David Pickering will be remembered for his contributions to Arnold Engineering Development Complex following his passing on July 9 at the age of 85.
Pickering is credited for his leadership in the AEDC contracting function throughout his more-than-30-year career at the Complex, overseeing the award and management of more than $1 billion worth of contracts required to operate and maintain AEDC. His work helped ensure the protection of the AEDC workforce through the development of contracting provisions.
He was honored as an AEDC Lifetime Achievement Fellow in 2009. The AEDC Fellows program, established in 1989, recognizes AEDC personnel who have made substantial and exceptionally distinguished contributions to the nation’s aerospace ground testing capability.
A native of Arkansas, Pickering graduated from Louisiana Tech University in 1962. He received his U.S. Air Force commission after completing Officer Training School in 1963, and the second lieutenant was assigned as a procurement officer at AEDC, then known as Arnold Engineering Development Center and located solely at Arnold Air Force Base. In this role, he served as a buyer, negotiator, contract administrator and contracting officer.
Pickering briefly left AEDC in November 1966 for a yearlong assignment as base procurement officer at Ubon Royal Thi Air Force Base in Thailand.
Following his service in the Air Force, Pickering returned to AEDC in 1968 as a civilian contract specialist.
According to his entry on the AEDC Fellows page of the Arnold AFB website, Pickering played an integral part in four operating contract competitions during this AEDC career.
He is credited with single-handedly devising and implementing techniques and contract provisions in 1980 when AEDC’s operation and maintenance contract split into three separate contracts. For the entirety of AEDC’s nearly 30-year history prior to this, AEDC operated under a single contract workforce.
According to former AEDC commander retired Col. Larry Graviss, the government stood to potentially lose scores of knowledgeable personnel as a result of the change.
“When the AEDC operation and maintenance contract, employing more than 3,200 people, was split into three contracts, hundreds of people found retirement and other benefits earned and accrued over 20 to 30 years of service in serious jeopardy,” Graviss said in 1995. “The government had found itself in danger of losing hundreds of highly skilled technicians, scientists, engineers and managers.
“David took the lead and almost single-handedly devised and caused the implementation of techniques to preserve the benefits at no additional cost to the government, thereby facilitating the retention of hundreds of employees essential to the successful operation of the Center.”
Throughout his AEDC tenure, Pickering received numerous promotions, awards and recognitions. In April 1974, he was named as the U.S. Air Force Employee of the Year for its Middle Tennessee installation.
During his time as AEDC technical director for Contracting, Pickering was a regular contributor to High Mach, the AEDC newspaper. In a piece he wrote for the July 1990 edition, Pickering described the streamlining techniques the Air Force selection team at AEDC implemented to select the Center’s three operating contractors. He referred to the optimized selection process as “a success on all counts” and wrote it was being used as a model for new contracting procedures being developed at the then-active Air Force Systems Command.
“These streamlined procedures were a great success,” Pickering wrote. “Not only did they enable us to save time and manpower, but they provided a more concise and accurate picture of each offeror and helped us choose the best contractors to meet the Center’s current and future needs.”
For his efforts, Pickering was named as one of the AEDC Outstanding Civilian Employees of the Quarter. He was credited with leading a Center-wide team in completing the “smoothest and quickest” operation and maintenance contractor selection in AEDC history.
He was also involved in a nationally recognized AEDC quality improvement effort in the early 1990s. A team, led by Pickering, was tasked with developing and deploying methodology for AEDC quality self-assessment, defining improvement areas for development of an AEC quality culture, and devising and applying a strategy for enhance quality implementation at AEDC.
This effort was first recognized at the Air Force Materiel Command level, and the Federal Quality Institute later selected the initiative as one of only three winners from more than 100 applicants for its 1993 Quality Improvement Prototype award.
Pickering retired in 1995 as the AEDC director of contracting.
“His professionalism, integrity and dedication have generated respect, admiration and loyalty from his associates and reflect the highest credit upon himself and the Air Force,” Graviss said during Pickering’s 1995 retirement ceremony.
According to his obituary, Pickering earned his Master of Business Administration from George Washington University in 1976. Following his retirement, he provided consulting services to the Sverdrup Corporation, which served as the AEDC propulsion test contractor from the contract split of the early 1980s to 2003.
He also realized a lifelong goal of becoming a licensed airplane pilot.