About Mike Ciminera, COA Board Member
Updated: Jul 8, 2022
Mike Ciminera played an integral role at Grumman and Northrop Grumman for 51 years. He began his career as a college apprentice at Grumman beginning at the age of 17 and was hired by Grumman after graduation to work in preliminary design realizing a dream of designing airplanes from the age of 12. After spending several years on the conceptual design of the F-14 Tomcat and working as the assistant to its chief designer for eight years, He then rose through the ranks to become Director of Advanced Systems (Preliminary Design), he then became Vice President managing such areas as Advanced Programs; the Systems Group including Electronics, Space and Joint Surveillance Attack Radar System (Joint STARS) Divisions; Electronic Systems Division; JPATS (Joint Primary Aircraft Training System) program; F-18 A/B/C/D Hornet program; and the Joint STARS (Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System) program in Lake Charles, LA. He then became a Sector Consultant for Northrop Grumman, providing technical and program management oversight of y programs including unmanned autonomous systems namely Fire Scout, UCAS (Unmanned Combat Autonomous System), and the X-47B Demonstrator that has landed and taken off autonomously from one of our nuclear aircraft carriers.
Currently, he has completed his second book about the aircraft designers and teammates who created, developed, and tested aircraft systems for Northrop Grumman (the first book being about the aircraft designers and teammates at Grumman). He also lectures and serves on other boards namely: Chair of the Dean’s Leadership Advisory Council of the School of Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; President of the Western Museum of Flight in Torrance, CA; board member of the COA (Christian Outreach in Action), a non-denominational center in Long Beach, CA that cares for those in need. He also coordinates the Hot Food Ministry at his church where he and his team have been preparing hot meals for 20 years.
Mike received a bachelor’s degree in aeronautical engineering from RPI in 1959; a master’s degree in aeronautical engineering from Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute (NYU) in 1964; and attended the MIT Sloan School of Business program for senior executives in 1981.
Great to see Mike Ciminera honored here. Fifty-one years at Grumman and still showing up for the Hot Food Ministry is the kind of quiet consistency that holds a community together. We think about that a lot at wacky steps — small, steady steps tend to take you further than one big leap.
Thanks for this profile of Mike — 51 years at Grumman and still volunteering with the Hot Food Ministry is a remarkable mix of engineering discipline and community service. Stories like his are a good reminder of how much local groups matter; outfits like the freak circus do similar work bringing people together through creative community events. Much respect to Mike and the whole COA board.
Thanks for sharing Mike’s story — five decades in aeronautical engineering and still showing up for the Hot Food Ministry says a lot about the man. Keeping an eye on volunteer hours and donations for outreach work like this is where track dash unblocked comes in handy. Appreciate the write-up.
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