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Telling the ATEC Story: The People Behind Test & Evaluation - Dean Shimizu

By ATEC G 3-5November 27, 2024

If you ask Dean Shimizu what’s the one thing people don’t know about him, you would learn his mom named him after American singer and actor, Dean Martin. Shimizu says that ironically, the only person who knows him better than his wife of 30 years is his first cousin, Greg, who was named after Gregory Peck, another well-known American actor.

Shimizu was born in Marysville, California, to Japanese American parents, both deceased. His father, Masao, was a farmer and his mother, Sachie, was a homemaker. Raised in Yuba City during the early 1970’s, Shimizu spent his first 23 years in Northern California. His childhood was idyllic but uneventful. Most of his youth was spent riding his motorbike in and around his rural, but suburban neighborhood, hunting in the surrounding fields, or fishing in the river tucked at the end of the road.

Growing up, Shimizu said his family was the typical lower-middle-class nuclear family. They ate dinner together every evening and gathered in the living room after dinner to watch iconic 70’s sitcoms on a black and white television set every household on his block owned.

Shimizu’s parents stressed the values of education and the expectation that he and his older sister, Linda, would attend college and earn degrees. Shimizu developed an interest in engineering in his freshman year physical science classes. After graduating from Yuba City High School in 1982, he enrolled at California State University at Sacramento and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering in 1988. Shimizu later attended Texas A&M University and received a Master of Engineering in industrial engineering in 1990. Both he and his sister have engineering degrees.

After earning his bachelor’s, Shimizu began his career in 1990 as a Department of the Army, or DA, intern at Yuma Test Center, or YTC, located at the U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground in Yuma, Arizona. An integral component of the U.S. Army Test and Evaluation Command, YTC specializes in providing comprehensive and rigorous test and developmental services for a wide array of military equipment and technologies.

Since 2004, Shimizu has been the automotive branch chief in the Combat and Automotive Systems Division of the Ground Systems Directorate. He leads a team of 14 DA civilians and six contract automotive and project engineers in planning, executing, and reporting on combat vehicle systems, combat support systems, and multi-vehicle developmental test and evaluation programs.

Currently, Shimizu and his team of engineers are focused on assisting the Next Generation Combat Vehicle Cross-Functional Team in developing, testing, and delivering new warfighting vehicles with enhanced capabilities to the next generation of ground combat warfighters, which will enable them to maneuver and maintain dominance across all domains.

When Shimizu isn’t at work helping to build his team of future leaders who will one day replace him, he’s at home spending quality time with his wife, Jennifer, and their daughter, Peyton. He feels blessed to have lived a fortunate life that allowed him to create a loving and nurturing environment for his daughter to grow, excel, and succeed.

He credits his parents for the type of leader and parent he became. Shimizu says his parents always put him and his sister first, supported them in every undertaking, and raised them with an abundance of unconditional love. Due to his parents' unwavering support and belief in him, he never felt there was anything he couldn't accomplish. And so far, there hasn’t been.