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Ronald
Erwin McNair was born on October 21, 1950 in Lake City, South
Carolina. An African-American born into a climate of racial segregation,
Ronald McNair dreamed of becoming a future scientist. His self-determination
and motivation resulted in exemplary academic success. He graduated
valedictorian of his high school class. Accepted by North Carolina
A&T University, he graduated with a B.S. degree in physics in
1971. Continuing his education, he ultimately received his Ph.D.
in quantum electronics and laser technology in 1976 at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Dr.
McNair's academic honors included being named a Presidential Scholar,
a Ford Foundation Fellow, a National Fellowship Fund Fellow, a
NATO Fellow, winner of Omega Psi Phi Scholar of the Year Award,
and Distinguished Alumni Award. In addition to his numerous academic
honors, Dr. McNair was an accomplished saxophone player and held
a fifth degree black belt in karate.
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his tenure at MIT, Dr. McNair performed scientific experiments and
theoretical analysis related to the earliest development of chemical
HF/DF and high-pressure CO lasers. In 1975, he studied abroad in
France with many authorities on laser physics. His novel research
findings were published in several scientific papers in the areas
of lasers and molecular spectroscopy. The results of which were
many presentations in the United States and abroad. After his graduation
from MIT, he pursued a career as a physicist with the Hughes Research
Laboratories in Malibu, California. His assignments focused on the
development of lasers for isotope separation and photochemistry
and electro-optic laser modulation for satellite-to-satellite space
communications. This career would lead Dr. McNair closer to the
space program, and closer to his career as astronaut.
In
January of 1978, Dr. McNair was selected as an astronaut candidate
by NASA. The following year he would be qualified for an assignment
on the Space Shuttle Challenger as a mission specialist astronaut.
As a mission specialist on STS 41-B, Dr. McNair flew his first
mission, which launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida on
February 3, 1984. The flight was successful, accomplishing the
proper shuttle deployment of two Hughes 376 communications satellites.
This mission marked the first flight of the Manned Maneuvering
Unit and the first use of the Canadian arm, operated by Dr. McNair,
to position EVA crewman around Challenger's payload bay. The Challenger
concluded its mission in the first landing on the runway at Kennedy
Space Center on February 11, 1984. Dr. McNair had logged 191 hours
in space.
Nearly
two years later, on a cold January morning, Dr. Ronald Erwin McNair
would board the Challenger Space Shuttle on his second space mission.
On January 28, 1986 tragedy would strike. Shortly after lift off
from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, the Space Shuttle Challenger
exploded. Dr. Ronald McNair was one of seven individuals aboard
who met an untimely death. Dr. McNair is survived by his wife,
Cheryl and his two children.
The
United States Congress, named a fellowship program in Dr. McNair's
honor, to recognize his remarkable academic and professional achievements.
The purpose of the Ronald E. McNair Postbaccalaureate Achievement
Program is to encourage low-income individuals who are first-generation
college students and/or traditionally underrepresented in graduate
education to pursue doctoral study. Named for Dr. McNair, the
program serves as a living memorial to a man who overcame seemingly
insurmountable odds to be awarded his Ph.D. in physics and later,
to realize his dream of becoming an astronaut for NASA. Dr. Ronald
McNair once said, "True courage comes in enduring. . . persevering
and believing in oneself." His life was truly an example
of this statement.
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