| Robert R. Gilruth AKA Robert Rowe Gilruth Born: 18-Oct-1913
Birthplace: Nashwauk, MN
Died: 17-Aug-2000
Location of death: Charlottesville, VA
Cause of death: unspecified
Gender: Male
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Engineer Nationality: United States
Executive summary: NASA scientist Robert R. Gilruth's boyhood hobby was designing and building rubber-band powered toy airplanes, and at the University of Minnesota he studied under Jean Piccard. He worked twenty years at NASA's predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, where he supervised free-flight experiments with high speed rocket-powered models at transonic and supersonic speeds, and conducted research on optimum wing design. He jumped to NASA when it was formed in 1958, and among NASA insiders he was sometimes called "godfather to the astronauts". Gilruth organized NASA's space task group, which evolved into Project Mercury and, with Gilruth in charge, launched Alan Shepard into space as America's first astronaut in 1961. Gilruth was the first director of NASA's Manned Spacecraft Center, from 1962-72, overseeing the Gemini and Apollo missions culminating in Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin's walk on the moon in 1969. His last work at NASA was early planning for the Apollo-Soyuz mission of July 1975. An amateur sailor, he designed and built his own boat, and in retirement he invented a sailing hydrofoil system for high-speed surface-skimming. Father: Henry Augustus Gilruth (physics teacher, b. 31-Mar-1881, d. 28-May-1969)
Mother: Francis Marion Rowe Gilruth (math teacher, b. 14-Jan-1885, m. 24-Aug-1909, d. 3-May-1973)
Sister: Jean Marian Gilruth McDonald (b. 5-Feb-1911, d. 5-Jul-1943)
Wife: Jean Barnhill Gilruth (aviator, b. 24-Oct-1912, d. 10-Dec-1972)
Daughter: Barbara Jean Gilruth Wyatt (d. 2007)
Wife: Jo Grumman Gilruth
High School: Duluth Central High School, Duluth, MN (1931)
University: BS Aeronautical Engineering, University of Minnesota (1935)
University: MS Aeronautical Engineering, University of Minnesota (1936)
ASME Medal 1970
National Aviation Hall of Fame 1994
American Astronomical Society
American Society of Mechanical Engineers
National Academy of Engineering
National Academy of Sciences
Royal Astronomical Society
NASA Space Task Group:(1958-73)
National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (1937-58)
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