I wanted a life which would never be boring. That meant a life in which always new things would occur ... I wanted a career in which I would always be happy even if I were to remain unmarried.

However, the position of a female in the world of science and engineering was difficult. Wilhelm has told of the secretary who served tea to the group at the weekly conference, but refused to serve Irmgard: "She can make her own tea."

In the spring of 1944, the destruction of Berlin had progressed so far that Wilhelm and Irmgard moved with their departments to Saulgau, a little town in the hills of southern Germany. After the end of the war, Saulgau was in the French zone of occupation. The French aeronautical establishment was resurrected after the war on an enlarged scale and was eager to take in the German intelligentsia. In 1947 Wilhelm Flügge and Irmgard Flügge-Lotz moved with many of their co-workers to Paris, to become part of the Office National d'Études et de Recherches Aéronautiques.

Lack of an appropriate title did not deter her from embarking upon a full and useful life of teaching and research at Stanford. She immediately undertook the guidance of Ph.D. dissertation research in aerodynamic theory, and in the spring of 1949, taught her first Stanford course, which was in boundary-layer theory.

In the simplest case a discontinuous automatic control system is a control system in which the correcting force is a positive constant A, or the corresponding negative constant -A, depending upon whether the sign of the error is positive or negative. Because of their simplicity, such systems are widely used, and the literature contains discussions of many particular systems of this kind. The present book represents the first attempt to treat such systems in a comprehensive and general way. ... the book constitutes a highly valuable contribution to the subject of automatic control, and it will, undoubtedly, lead to many further advances in the field.

The purpose of this book is to acquaint the reader with the problem of discontinuous control by presenting the essential phenomena in simple examples before guiding him to an understanding of systems of higher order.

This book is a distillation from the author's nearly three decades as a pioneering contributor to control theory. It thus deals with a highly individual selection of topics in a highly individual manner.

Professor Flügge-Lotz has acted in a central role in the development of the aircraft industry in the Western world. Her contributions have spanned a lifetime during which she demonstrate, in a field dominated by men, the value and quality of a woman's intuitive approach in searching for and discovering solutions to complex engineering problems. Her work manifests unusual personal dedication and native intelligence.

The Flügges did not have children, but possibly compensated by adopting, in their own formal way, all the mechanics colleagues, students, and visitors. A regular schedule of inviting people for evening tea at their home in Los Altos was maintained.

... maintained the home exactly as it was with her, occasionally inviting guests for evening tea and on rarer occasions preparing an elaborate meal for guests. The spirit of Irmgard was always present.

Irmgard Flügge-Lotz, teacher, researcher, friend, and gracious hostess, set out on her career hoping never to be bored - there is every indication she achieved her goal. In everything, whether helping students, pursuing her professional work, or bringing together an interesting group of people for an evening of quiet conversation, she displayed enthusiasm, good humour, and a sense of purpose and accomplishment.