About Ronald E.
McNair
Scholar, Astronaut, and Musician
Ronald
Erwin McNair was born October 21, 1950 in Lake City, South Carolina. He
graduated from Carver High School (Lake City, SC) in 1967 and received a
Bachelor’s degree in Physics from North Carolina Agricultural and
Technical State University (Greensboro, NC) in 1971. Following his
undergraduate education, he pursued a doctoral degree at Massachusetts
Institute of Technology and was awarded a Ph.D. in 1976. His doctoral
dissertation is entitled “Energy Absorption and Vibrational Heating
in Molecules Following Intense Laser Excitation.”
His research initiatives were among the first in the development of chemical and high-pressure lasers. Following graduate school, he was hired as a staff physicist at Hughes Research Laboratories (Malibu, CA) where he continued his work on development of advanced lasers and became interested in their use for satellite-to-satellite space communications and remote sensing of the atmosphere.
In 1978, Dr. McNair was selected as an astronaut candidate by NASA, and one year later (1979), he was qualified as a mission specialist astronaut to participate on Space Shuttle flight crews. His first space mission occurred in 1984 when he was assigned as a mission specialist on STS 41-B and had primary responsibility for a number of experiments on this 8-day Challenger flight. He was again assigned as a mission specialist on the team that flew STS51-L, but their lives were tragically cut short by the explosion of the Space Shuttle Challenger shortly after lift-off from Kennedy Space Center on January 28, 1986.
While his professional career was brief, he achieved much and was recognized with several prestigious honors during his life. Dr. McNair received honorary doctorates from North Carolina A&T State University (1978), Morris College (1980), and the University of South Carolina (1984). As an undergraduate student, he was a Presidential Scholar (1967-1971). As a graduate student, he was recognized as a Ford Foundation Fellow (1971-1974), a National Fellowship Fund Fellow (1974-1975), a NATO Fellow (1975), and the recipient of the Omega Psi Phi Scholar of the Year (1975). During his time as a staff physicist and NASA mission specialist, his scholarly and service activities were recognized by the Los Angeles Public School System’s Service Commendation (1979), a Distinguished Alumni Award (1979), the Distinguished National Scientist Award from the National Society of Black Professional Engineers (1979), and the Friend of Freedom Award (1981). Posthumously, he was awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor.
In his personal life, Ronald McNair achieved much also. He was a karate instructor, held a 5th degree black belt, and received the AAU Karate Gold Medal in 1976. He was a musician and performed as a jazz saxophonist. His other hobbies included boxing, card playing, cooking, football, and running. He was married to Cheryl McNair and was the father of two children, Reginald and Joy McNair. Cheryl McNair is a founding member of the Challenger Center for Space Science Education. Carl McNair, his brother, established the Ronald E. McNair Foundation and works extensively on behalf of the Ronald E. McNair Postbaccalaureate Achievement Program.