Janet Elaine Hauber
Janet Elaine Hauber died Feb. 27. She was 83.
Hauber is a founding member of the Texas Republic Ranches Legacy Foundation and served on the board of directors. She retired in 2004 after a 34-year career with the University of California at which time she moved to central Texas. She worked her entire career in the development of nuclear weapons to serve as a deterrent to war. Her expertise was in metallurgy, high-temperature mechanical properties of metals, safe handling of radioactive materials, workplace safety and project and personnel management.
Through performance she advanced to higher levels of responsibility in her career. She began as a staff scientist, then advanced to project manager, section leader, plutonium metallurgy and engineering manager, program manager, division leader, and finally special assistant to the engineering department head for research and development. In 1998, she deferred her planned retirement for two years to take an assignment at the Department of Energy in Washington, D.C. as program manager of the nuclear cities initiative, “Swords for Plowshares,” an effort between Russian nuclear weapons scientists and their U.S. counterparts. For this effort Hauber was awarded the Distinguished Career Service Award by the National Nuclear Security Administration.
She received her bachelor’s of mechanical engineering degree from Marquette University in 1965, and her master’s degree and Ph.D. in materials science and engineering from Stanford University in 1967 and 1970 respectively.
Hauber was born in Milwaukee and lived in Virginia, California and Moscow before settling in Texas.
A longtime philanthropist, Hauber awarded 46, $1000 scholarships to aspiring women engineers, established a Presidential Endowed Scholarship for a female engineer undergraduate at the University of Texas, and donated $50,000 for computer equipment the university’s student athlete center.
She is survived by her daughter, Kimberly Hauber; her grandchildren, Douglas Hauber, Caleb Wilde and Jesse Hauber-Harris; her niece Jori Johnson; and her goddaughter, Lynda Hauber.
A graveside memorial will be held on July 21, 2021 at the Driftwood Cemetery, next to the Driftwood United Methodist Church, 15090 Ranch to Market Road (Route 150), at 9 am.
