Exploring the Unknown - NASA's History Office

Robert M. White (1923– ) served as head of the U.S. Weather Bureau and the Environmental Science Services
Administration in the 1960s, as administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in the
1970s, and as head of the National Academy of Engineering in the late 1980s. See “White, Robert M.,” biographical
file, NASA Historical Reference Collection.
Clay T. Whitehead was a White House staff assistant during the Nixon administration from 1969 to 1972 who was
heavily involved in space policy associated with the decision to build the Space Shuttle and post-Apollo planning
for NASA. See Launius, “NASA and the Decision to Build the Space Shuttle, 1969–72”; Launius, “A Western
Mormon in Washington, D.C.”
Donald D. Williams (1931–1966) was instrumental in the development of the Early Bird and Syncom communications
satellites. He was employed by Hughes Aircraft and was named one of America’s ten outstanding young
men of 1965 by the U.S. Junior Chamber of Commerce. On February 21, 1966, Williams committed suicide. See
“Academic and Scientific Miscellaneous,” biographical file, NASA Historical Reference Collection.
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John Yardley began his career in aerospace in 1946, when he joined McDonnell Aircraft. While with that company,
he assumed a major role in the Mercury and Gemini programs. In 1974, he came to NASA as the associate
administrator for manned spaceflight. His title then changed to associate administrator for spaceflight, and
in 1978, he became associate administrator for space transportation systems. In 1981, he returned to the private
sector as president of the McDonnell-Douglas Astronautics Company. See “Yardley, John,” biographical file,
NASA Historical reference Collection.
John D. Young (1919– ) earned a master of science degree from Syracuse in 1943 and served as an officer in
the Marine Corps from 1942 to 1945. He worked for various government agencies in the next few years and then
became a management consultant with McKinsey & Co. from 1954 to 1960. He served as NASA’s director of management
analysis from 1960 to 1961 and then became, successively, deputy director for administration and
deputy associate administrator at NASA Headquarters. He left NASA in 1966 for a series of management positions
in the Bureau of the Budget and the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. Thereafter, he
became a professor of public management at American University. See “Young, J.D.,” biographical file, NASA
Historical Reference Collection.
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