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Appointment of 14 Members of the National Commission on Space, and Designation of the Chairman and Vice Chairman

March 29, 1985

The President today appointed the following individuals to be members of the National Commission on Space. These are new positions. He also designated Thomas O. Paine as Chairman and Laurel L. Wilkening as Vice Chairman.

Thomas O. Paine, Chairman, is chairman of Thomas Paine Associates, consultants in high-technology enterprises. Previously he was president, chief operating officer, and director of the Northrop Corp. in Los Angeles, CA. He was Deputy Administrator, then Administrator, of NASA in 1968-1970. He graduated from Brown University (A.B., 1942) and Stanford University (M.S., 1947; Ph.D., 1949). He was born November 9, 1921, in Berkeley, CA, and now resides in Los Angeles, CA.

Laurel L. Wilkening, Vice Chairman, has been on the staff of the University of Arizona since 1973 and is now serving as vice provost. In 1980 she was division scientist, Planetary Division, NASA headquarters. She has served on several commissions and working groups at NASA from 1976 to the present. She graduated from Reed College (B.A., 1960) and the University of California (Ph.D., 1970). She was born November 23, 1944, in Richland, WA, and now resides in Tucson, AZ.

Luis W. Alvarez is currently a physicist at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory and a professor emeritus at Berkeley. He was a founding member of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Radiation Laboratory. He was born June 13, 1911, in San Francisco, CA, and now resides in Berkeley, CA.

Neil A. Armstrong is currently chairman of the board of Computer Technology Aviation, Inc. He was an astronaut at the Manned Spacecraft Center, NASA, Houston (1962-1970), and was command pilot of Gemini 8, commander of Apollo II, and the first man to walk on the Moon. He was born August 5, 1930, in Wapakoneta, OH, and now resides in Lebanon, OH.

Paul Jerome Coleman is currently president of the Space Research Association and professor of geophysics and space at the University of California at Los Angeles. He is also assistant director of Los Alamos National Laboratory. He was born March 17, 1932, in Evanston, IL, and now resides in Pacific Palisades, CA.

George Brooks Field is a senior physicist at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and a Robert Wheeler Willson professor of applied astronomy at Harvard University. He also serves as the chairman of the Space Telescope Advisory Committee at the Space Telescope Science Institute. He was born October 25, 1929, in Providence, RI, and now resides in Cambridge, MA.

Lt. Gert. William H. Fitch, USMC, Ret., most recently served as Deputy Chief of Staff, Aviation, at the headquarters of the U.S. Marine Corps in 1982-1984. He was born November 6, 1929, in Chattanooga, TN, and now resides in McLean, VA.

Charles M. Herzfeld has been with ITT Corp. since 1967 and currently serves as vice president and director of research and technology. He was born June 29, 1925, in Vienna, Austria, and now resides in West field, NJ.

J.L. Kerrebrock is Richard Cockburn Maclaurin professor and head of the department of aeronautics and astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was born February 6, 1928, in Los Angeles, CA, and now resides in Lincoln, MA.

Jeane J. Kirkpatrick has been serving as Representative of the United States to the United Nations since January 1981. She is also a member of the President's Blue Ribbon Task Group on Nuclear Weapons Program Management. She has been the Thomas and Dorothy Leavey professor at Georgetown University since 1978 (currently on leave). She was born November 19, 1926, in Duncan, OK, and now resides in Bethesda, MD.

Gerard K. O'Neill is president, chairman, and chief executive officer of Geostar Corp. in Princeton, NJ. He was born February 6, 1927, in Brooklyn, NY, and now resides in Princeton, NJ.

Kathryn D. Sullivan is an astronaut at the NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, TX, and was the first woman to walk in space. She was born October 3, 1951, in Paterson, NJ, and now resides in Houston, TX.

David C. Webb is a consultant in the field of space development and chairman and founding member of the National Coordinating Committee for Space. He was born November 20, 1928, in County Tipperary, Ireland, and now resides in Arlington, VA.

Brig. Gen. Charles E. Yeager, USAF, Ret., was the first man to cross the sound barrier and the first to fly at a speed of more than 1,600 miles an hour, which he achieved in December 1953. He currently serves as a consultant to many corporations, including Northrop, Lear-Signon, and Piper. He was born February 13, 1923, in Myra, WV, and now resides in Cedar Ridge, CA.

Ronald Reagan, Appointment of 14 Members of the National Commission on Space, and Designation of the Chairman and Vice Chairman Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/259543

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