Jack Arlen Suddreth, 86, of Locust Grove, VA, passed away on September 1, 2019 while surrounded by his loving family. He was born to John and Catherine Suddreth on August 14, 1933 in Cleveland, Ohio.

Jack's (Pap's) highlight in life was spending time with his family. He enjoyed traveling, skiing, and boating. He spent every winter taking his kids and later his grandchildren snow skiing until his early 80's. He spent every summer boating and water skiing on the lake. Going to the beach was also a family favorite activity. The grandchildren loved playing the "washing machine" game with Pap at the pool. Jack was a dedicated husband, father, grandfather and friend.

Jack had an accomplished career and was passionate about his work. He graduated in 1956 from Case Institute of Technology in Cleveland and specialized in propulsion and power within his Mechanical Engineering curriculum. He worked at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) in Cleveland on the ramjet cruise missile and the "bell shaped" nozzles on rockets. On October 1, 1958, NACA was transferred to form NASA. For the next 13 years, Jack was assigned to high performance liquid rocket technologies. In the summer of 1962, Jack went to Pratt and Whitney's Florida Test Site to work on the 1st cryogenic engine to restart in space for insertion of a spacecraft into a parking orbit at 22,000 mile altitude. Next, Jack transferred to the NASA HQ in Washington, DC where he worked on the technologies that were developed for the Saturn/Apollo systems and the Space Shuttle's Main Engine, the Orbital Maneuvering System and the on-orbit vernier control motors. After the Lunar Landing, Jack was transferred to work on high performance, low noise, low pollution air-breathing propulsion systems for military and civilian aircraft including the Supersonic Transport development at the FAA. He became the Supersonic Cruise Aircraft Research (SCAR) Program Manager. Jack had oversight of the two YF-12 airplanes that were assigned to NASA for flight experiments. After the SCAR program was cancelled, Jack became the deputy Associate Administrator for Supersonic and Hypersonic Vehicles and Hypersonic facilities and was assigned to the National AeroSpace Plane (NASP) Program in 1984 until he retired in 1988. After retirement, Jack continued to work in the aerospace field at SRS Technologies in Washington DC until 2008. He continued to support other organizations as a consultant until 2014. In 2017, Jack and his wife Sue finally retired to their lake property at Lake of the Woods in Locust Grove, VA.

He was predeceased by his parents, John and Catherine Suddreth, as well as his brothers, Thomas and Robert Suddreth, and sister Carolyn Suddreth. He is survived by his wife, Blanche Suzanne Suddreth of 56 years; daughters: Suzanne Rindfleisch, Catherine Nestoriak, and son: John Suddreth and his wife, Melanie Suddreth; as well as 8 grandchildren, Louis, Stephanie, and Christopher Rindfleisch, Andrew and Emma Nestoriak, Matthew, Nicole and Lily Suddreth; and 2 great-grandchildren, Amelia and Theo Rindfleisch.

A memorial service will be held on Friday, September 6, 2019 at 2pm at Barranco Severna Park Funeral Home & Cremation Care, P.A., 495 Ritchie Hwy, Severna Park, MD, 21146. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the Rescue and Fire Department  Lake of the Woods in Locust Grove, VA at https://lowfr29.com/product/donate/