George Prior Townsend, Jr. was born on July 2, 1920 in San Diego, California to George Prior Townsend, Sr. and Lucy Barrett Turrentine. Townsend attended Texas A&M University and graduated with a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering in 1940. As a student, he participated in a secret project for Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company involving gas turbines in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Townsend was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the United States Army Reserve on July 2, 1941, his twenty-first birthday. After the United States entered World War II, he was transferred with the 31st Division of the Sixth Army to the Southwest Pacific theater, serving in Australia, the Philippines, and New Guinea until the end of the war.

After being released from active duty in September 1945, he rejoined Westinghouse as a senior engineer, later serving in managerial roles. In 1952 he was commissioned by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) as a member of the Lubrication and Wear Subcommittee, and in 1955 transferred to Kansas City, Kansas to serve as head of the engineering department at Westinghouse. After the company discontinued work on jet engines, Townsend accepted a position as chief engineer at Sunstrand Aviation in Denver, Colorado. In 1959, he was commissioned as a member of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Research Advisory Committee on Mechanical Power Plant Systems.

In 1960 Townsend moved to the Hamilton Standard Division of United Aircraft to work on development of the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird and an early computer-aided design program among many other projects. He retired from the company in 1985.

During his career he also worked on various NASA projects including the lunar rover vehicle and supersonic transport. In his retirement, he served as a consultant for Hamilton Standard, Sikorsky Aircraft, and Pratt & Whitney Aircraft. He was also head of the International Energy Conversion Engineering Conference and chair of the Federal Aviation Administration/NASA Containment Committee, in addition to serving on committees for the Society of Automotive Engineers.

George Prior Townsend, Jr. died at the age of 95 in West Hartford, Connecticut on August 17, 2015.

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Biography derived from donor information and collection materials.