Col. Charles M. Seeger Jr., 86

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. - Col. Charles M. "Chuck" Seeger Jr., an Air Force colonel whose research influenced the cockpit design of military aircraft, died April 21, 2007, in Greenspring Village retirement community, Springfield, Ill. He was 86.

Col. Seeger was born in New Richmond, Ohio and grew up in Cincinnati.

He graduated from Wilmington College in Ohio before enrolling at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y.

He received a master"s degree in psychology from Ohio State University in 1951 and did a doctoral study in psychology at Ohio State.

Col. Seeger was a 1945 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy and transferred to the Air Force after it was formed in 1947.

He was trained to fly seven different bombers, fighters and cargo planes and served as a pilot in the Berlin Airlift after World War II.

From 1949 to 1952, he studied at the Air Force Institute of Technology at Ohio State University.

He then spent four years as chief of the In-Flight Research Areomedical Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio.

He conducted research that resulted in the basic design of instrumentation and cockpits of military aircraft.

Col. Seeger, who was fluent in German, was an assistant professor of German and a professor of psychology at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado from 1956 to 1960.

He then came to Washington as a personnel officer at Andrews Air Force Base.

He later flew cargo planes in Japan and held command positions with the Air Force Military Airlift Command at the Pentagon and at Air Force bases in California and Illinois.

From 1967 to 1969, he piloted C-124 cargo planes from Dover Air Force Base, Del., including 33 missions to Vietnam.

From 1969 to 1974, Col. Seeger was at the Pentagon, first as chief of the Military Airlift Command and later as chief of the passenger and personal property office.

He retired in 1974.

His decorations included two awards of the Legion of Merit and two Air Force Commendation Medals.

In 1974, he moved from Upper Marlboro, Md., to Rehoboth Beach, Del., where he was city manager for two years.

He taught math and science at a middle school in Dover, Del., from 1976-1984.

While serving with Allied occupation forces in Germany in 1947, Col. Seeger won the Army Air Forces tennis championship and was invited to play at Wimbledon. He enjoyed playing tennis throughout his life.

He and his wife lived in Satellite Beach, Fla., from 1984-2002, when they moved to Springfield.

He was president of the Greenspring Village Republican Club.

Survivors include his wife of 59 years, Helen Elizabeth Seeger of Springfield; three children, Christopher C. Seeger and Charles M. Seeger III, both of Washington, and Cynthia Seeger Kleiman of Manassas; and three grandsons.