On March 12, 2020, John Evans Burkhalter went home to be with his Creator and Savior. He was preceded in death by his sister, Doris Lymerle Holbrook. He is survived by his wife, Jeanne Schafer Burkhalter; children, Selena Burkhalter Day, Kimberly Burkhalter Wilson (Rick), J. Scott Burkhalter (Amy Johnson Burkhalter), and Canada Burkhalter Burns (Farris); grandchildren, Forrest Shirley, Jamie Shirley, Austin Day, Taylor Wilson, Audrey Wilson, Jake Burkhalter, and Luke Burkhalter. He was born on January 23, 1940, to the late Lawrence and Lillian Burkhalter in a rural area of Chilton County. Raised in a God-fearing family, it was at his church that he learned to read music from his grandfather, Papa DeVaughn. This led to his lifelong love of singing praises through Hymns, a church choir or Southern Gospel music. His church was also the place that he came to know his Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, at the age of 14. Around this same time, he developed a fascination for airplanes and how they fly, and knew that he wanted to be an aerospace (or aeronautical) engineer. After graduation from Verbena High School in 1958, this love of flight lead him to pursue a Bachelors and Masters degree in Aerospace Engineering at Auburn University. Upon completion of his Masters, he briefly taught at Auburn for a couple of years. From there he completed one year of post graduate work at the University of Tennessee Space Institute in 1968. Driven to earn a terminal degree, John enrolled in the PhD program at the University of Texas at Austin. During the course of his dissertation work, he participated materially in designing and patenting an artificial heart (a "Cardiac Replacement Pumping Device" which was successfully tested in a cow). Based on this research, John earned his Doctor of Philosophy in Engineering in 1972 from the University of Texas. In 1972, John returned to Auburn and began his career as a Professor of Aerospace Engineering. During his illustrious professorial career at Auburn, John published over 60 refereed journal articles and papers, including his most renowned article in the AIAA Journal entitled, "Prediction of Critical Mach Number for Store Configurations." This first use of "cut cells" for numerically solving the equations for fluid motion is now world renowned as one of the critical enabling technologies of modern Computation Fluid Dynamics. In the 1980s, the United States discovered widespread use by Russia of a technology known as grid fins. John and his students, under contract with the Department of Defense, pioneered the methods necessary to analyze, design and optimize grid fins primarily for use in missile systems. John also developed methods to analyze spinning tails on supersonic missiles and he was the curator of a tool known as AERODSM for predicting the aerodynamics of a complete missile system. Johns expertise and seminal papers in the area of subsonic aircraft aerodynamics earned him a reputation sufficient to warrant his election as the Chair of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Applied Aerodynamics Technical Committee from 1994-1996. Beginning in the late 1990s John and his students introduced an optimization method using genetic algorithms to the missile system design problem. The introduction of binary encoded genetic algorithms significantly advanced the state of the art for missile system engineering, including the reverse engineering of foreign missile systems. This activity was sponsored by the Department of Defense and led to many discoveries and articles related to solid rocket motor analysis and design. During Johns final years as a Professor, he also served as the Associate Department Head of Aerospace Engineering and retired after 37 years, as a Professor Emeritus in 2004. As Professor Emeritus, John remained very active continuing to use his experience and unending passion to remain very active in Missile System Design and Aerodynamics Projects. In 2014 he joined the Research in Flight Company and served as the principle investigator on four NASA SBIR projects involving the development of a surface vorticity solver for subsonic aircraft aerodynamics known as FlightStream. John drew on his career-long body of work in vortex dynamics to lead an effort that has produced a cutting edge commercial tool for aircraft design. Throughout his career, he was always willing to take on any challenge and this attitude made him sought out as a missile systems expert and consultant for both government agencies and private companies. He spent many summer semesters working with the U.S. Army at Red Stone Arsenal, Missile and Space Intelligence Center, Dynetics Inc., Support Systems Associates Inc., Summit Inc., Sverdrup Inc., Boeing, NASA, and the U.S. Air Force. In addition to this, John was also a regular invited speaker at conferences, Department of Defense Laboratories, and short course venues. Even though John was a highly accomplished scholar, his first love was always for his students, their learning, and their future. He was constantly thinking of ways to better illustrate a point, create projects to assign, or give better tools to his students. His applied research was constantly providing him with ideas for how to correctly inform students at all levels. For these efforts, he was awarded the Birdsong Merit Teaching Award (1996) and Outstanding Faculty of the Year Award (2000-2001, 2003-2004) along with many other accolades. But it was Johns personal touch that profoundly affected so many people. He always made sure that his office was a welcoming and enlightening environment to his students who needed clarification after a lecture. He was always eager to offer new angles, new examples and different interpretations that helped his students to better understand the simpler building blocks of a complex theory. With regard to his career, Johns greatest legacy is his students who went on to successful careers in large part by his direct involvement in their lives and education as a faculty member. Johns mind was always working to try to create or improve outside of his classroom too. This resulted in him developing some amazing hobbies. He took up model airplane building and flying as well as canoeing and collecting and refurbishing M1 Garands. Over the years, he honed his skills to become a master woodworker, brilliantly turning a rough log into a piece of fine furniture. He delighted in surprising his family with an elaborately crafted masterpiece. In his later years, as God blessed him with continued technical work, his grateful heart responded by using this extra income to help others. Whether using his tractor to move a log for his neighbor or helping his family and friends with financial needs, it seemed that the more he gave away, the more God provided. He married his best friend, Jeanne, in 1988 and they enjoyed 31 rich and wonderful years. They cherished and honored each other as well as the Lord and always sought His guidance in everything they did. This led them through many enjoyable adventures: home schooling their daughter, Canada, building their house, planting azaleas in "rock" soil, sawing logs and many other outside activities. In his personal life, as he began growing in his relationship with Christ, John loved teaching the Word of God, starting with university students and then older adults later in his life. After meeting Henry Morris, fellow engineer and founder of the modern creation science movement, John developed a passion for Creation Science. He understood that the purpose of science is to glorify his Creator as opposed to it being used to deny His act of Creation. Those who met him knew him as both an intellectual and humble man of God. John was always excited to discover something new in Gods Word and to expound upon it to others. He encouraged a love for exploration and technical knowledge in his children which has carried on into many of their careers and passions. Yet more than that, he always sought to point his children and grandchildren to his Savior and Creator. John knew that it is not accomplishments or possessions, but rather who you are in Christ that is the most important aspect of life. Funeral service will be held at the outdoor pavilion at Town Creek Cemetery Thursday, March 19, 2020 at 2:00 p.m. with Reverends Tom Tippett and Larry Doster officiating. Deep appreciation and gratitude are extended to: his church family, caring neighbors, dear friends, former students, faithful family members and former colleagues for their visits, prayers and support. Special thanks to Home Instead and his grandson, Forrest Shirley who provided relief for his wife as his caregiver and Compassus Hospice, for their attentive devotion in his final weeks. Flowers are welcome, however if you would like to make a donation in his name, the family requests that donations be made to Womens Hope Medical Clinic, 832 Stage Road, Auburn, AL 36830, Institute for Creation Research P.O. Box 59029, Dallas, TX 75229 or Compassus Hospice, 1171 Gatewood Drive Building 100, Auburn AL 36830. Funeral service will be held at the outdoor pavilion at Town Creek Cemetery Thursday, March 19, 2020 at 2:00 p.m. with Reverends Tom Tippett and Larry Doster officiating.