Ronald McNair
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Ronald Ewald McNair, Ph.D. (October 21, 1950 – January 28, 1986) was one of the astronauts killed during the launch of the Space Shuttle Challenger, mission STS-51-L. He was a native of Lake City, South Carolina.
Dr. McNair received a B.S. in physics from North Carolina A&T State University in 1971, and a Ph.D. in the same discipline from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1977. [link] He was also honored with honorary doctorates in 1978, 1980 and 1984.
He was a 5th-degree black belt karate instructor and had won five regional championships. Among myriad other studies in the field of physics, Dr. McNair had conducted research on the scientific foundations of the martial arts.
After graduation from MIT, he became a staff physicist at the Hughes Research Laboratories in Malibu, California.
During the 1970s actress Nichelle Nichols of Star Trek fame was employed by NASA to recruit minority candidates for the space program. Dr. McNair became one of these candidates, was selected for the astronaut program in 1978 and had flown a mission on the Challenger in February, 1984 as a mission specialist.
Dr. McNair was a saxophonist; before the mission he worked with composer Jean Michel Jarre on a piece of music, Rendez-vous VI. It was intended that he would record his saxophone solo on board Challenger, making it the first piece of music played in space. After the disaster, the piece was renamed Ron's Piece.
McNair crater on the Moon is named in his honor. Also, the U.S. Department of Education offers the Ronald E. McNair Postbaccalaureate Achievement Program for disadvantaged students. There is a Ronald McNair Math and Science Center at Francis Marion University in Florence, South Carolina. As well Dr. Ronald E. McNair Academic High School in Jersey City, New Jersey (Jersey City Public Schools) and Ronald E. McNair Elementary School in Dallas, Texas (Dallas ISD) were named in his honor. There is a memorial for Dr. McNair in a park in Brooklyn, NY. The St. Louis, Missouri suburb of University City has Ronald McNair Elementary School in his honor. And inside the Davis Planetarium in downtown Jackson, Mississippi, the Ronald E. McNair Space Theater is named in his honor. A building on the Willowridge High School campus in Houston, Texas is named in honor of Dr. McNair.
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