Princeton Weekly Bulletin June 21, 1999

Professor to teach senior driving course

    

Seymour Bogdonoff has set up an off-road driving course on Forrestal Campus for the summer program he plans to teach. (photo by Denise Applewhite)

 
Driving is a skill. Like other skills, if you don't use it, you lose it," says Seymour Bogdonoff, R.P. Patterson Professor of Aeronautical Engineering, Emeritus. "A combination of practice and training," he adds, "can make you not only better that you are now, but better than you've ever been."

Bogdonoff is the designer of the Driver's Skill Enhancement Program being offered on campus this summer by BEI Inc. The two-day course for retirees will include one day of classroom teaching and one day of in-car driving lessons and practice.

Day One includes "lectures and video presentations designed to expand the participants' knowledge base, as well as cognitive and practical exercises," says Bogdonoff. On Day Two, after examining the condition of each driver's car and how well it fits the driver, he says, "First I drive, then you drive, then you drive alone practicing exercises we've tailored to be most helpful to you personally."

Aerodynamics expert

An expert in high speed aerodynamics, Bogdonoff was an active Princeton faculty member for 50 years before retiring in 1989. He was also adviser to various government agencies, including NASA and the US Air Force, which twice gave him awards for exceptional civilian service. The BEI program, he says, incorporates some of the things he's learned over the years from training programs for astronauts, pilots and race car drivers.

"Most people working in geriatrics are working with older people who have health problems, but it's important to remember that those are just the fringe of a much larger group: the healthy elderlywho not only can be driving, they should be driving. For older people, driving is the key to independence."

To apply for the program, which will be offered in several sessions this summer at a modest cost, phone 258-5125. Each session will be limited to six people.