Richard Schaden has been awarded an honorary degree by the University of Colorado Boulder.
Schaden, a successful engineer, businessman, attorney, and philanthropist is a member of the Smead Aerospace External Advisory Board and a lecturer in both CU Engineering and at Wolf Law School.
The honorary doctorate of humane letters was presented to Schaden during the university's Spring 2018 Commencement Ceremony on May 10.
He has had a distinguished career as an international aviation and public interest trial attorney, with many years of successful litigation and trial work experience, encompassing over 400 aviation accident cases. An aeronautical engineer by education, Schaden discovered early in his legal career that he could do some of his best aeronautical engineering and re-engineering and make general aviation safer, in the courtroom, rather than in commercial aviation R&D departments.
Prior to his legal career, Schaden worked for the Boeing Aircraft Company as a Flight Test Engineer and for Continental Aviation and Engineering Corporation as a Jet Engine Project Engineer.
Throughout his legal career, Schaden has authored several articles on the topic of product liability, provided special testimony on the topic of aircraft safety to a subcommittee for the U.S. House of Representatives; and lectured at various colleges and universities on the topics of trial practice, engineering, and product liability.
Deeply committed to education, Schaden has been a frequent lecturer at the Law and Engineering Schools at the University of Colorado Boulder, and established the Schaden Chair in Experiential Learning within Wolf Law. He is also helping to create what may be the first course in forensic engineering for law students, and made a generous gift of equipment from Escape Dyanmics, a company he founded that explorered the use of microwaves to propel rockets into space.
Schaden’s passions include flying, sailing and engineering. As an Airline Transport Pilot with a Jet-Type Rating in numerous aircraft, he logs several hundred hours of flight time each year.
