T. Keith Glennan
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Thomas Keith Glennan (September 8, 1905 – April 11, 1995) was the first Administrator of the
National Aeronautics and Space Administration The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding th ...
, serving from August 19, 1958 to January 20, 1961.


Early career

Born in
Enderlin, North Dakota Enderlin is a city in Cass and Ransom counties in the State of North Dakota. The population was 881 at the 2020 census. History Enderlin was founded in 1891. One of the oldest buildings in town, the Robert Lindemann House, was built in 1913 and ...
, the son of Richard and Margaret Glennan, he attended the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire and then earned a degree in electrical engineering from the Sheffield Scientific School of Yale University in 1927, where he was a member of the
Chi Phi Fraternity Chi Phi () is considered by some as the oldest American men's college social fraternity that was established as the result of the merger of three separate organizations that were each known as Chi Phi. The earliest of these organizations was for ...
. Following graduation, he became associated with the newly developed sound motion picture industry, and later became assistant general service superintendent for Electrical Research Products Company, a subsidiary of
Western Electric The Western Electric Company was an American electrical engineering and manufacturing company officially founded in 1869. A wholly owned subsidiary of American Telephone & Telegraph for most of its lifespan, it served as the primary equipment ma ...
Company. During his career he was studio manager of
Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldes ...
, and Samuel Goldwyn Studios, and was briefly on the staff of Vega Aircraft Corporation. Glennan joined the Columbia University Division of War Research in 1942, serving throughout World War II, first as Administrator and then as Director of the U.S. Navy's Underwater Sound Laboratories at New London, Connecticut. At the end of the war, Glennan became an executive of the Ansco Corp. in
Binghamton, New York Binghamton () is a city in the U.S. state of New York, and serves as the county seat of Broome County. Surrounded by rolling hills, it lies in the state's Southern Tier region near the Pennsylvania border, in a bowl-shaped valley at the conflue ...
. From this position he was called to the presidency of the Case Institute of Technology in
Cleveland, Ohio Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...
. During his administration, Case rose from a primarily local institution to rank with the top engineering schools in the United States. From October 1950 to November 1952, concurrent with his Case presidency, he served as a member of the
U.S. Atomic Energy Commission The United States Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) was an agency of the United States government established after World War II by U.S. Congress to foster and control the peacetime development of atomic science and technology. President ...
.


Administration

As NASA Administrator, Glennan presided over an organization that had absorbed the earlier National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) intact; its 8,000 employees, an annual budget of $100 million, and three major research laboratories— Langley Aeronautical Laboratory,
Ames Aeronautical Laboratory The Ames Research Center (ARC), also known as NASA Ames, is a major NASA research center at Moffett Federal Airfield in California's Silicon Valley. It was founded in 1939 as the second National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) laborat ...
, and Lewis Flight Propulsion Laboratory—and two small test facilities made up the core of the new NASA. Within a short time after NASA's formal organization, Glennan incorporated several organizations involved in space exploration projects from other federal agencies into NASA to ensure that a viable scientific program of space exploration could be reasonably conducted over the long-term. He brought in part of the Naval Research Laboratory in NASA and created for its use the
Goddard Space Flight Center The Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) is a major NASA space research laboratory located approximately northeast of Washington, D.C. in Greenbelt, Maryland, United States. Established on May 1, 1959 as NASA's first space flight center, GSFC empl ...
. He also incorporated several disparate satellite programs, two lunar probes, and the research effort to develop a million pound force (4.4 MN) thrust, single-chamber rocket engine from the U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Department of Defense's (DOD) Advanced Research Projects Agency. In December 1958 Glennan also acquired control of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a contractor facility operated by the California Institute of Technology. In 1960, Glennan obtained the transfer to NASA of the Army Ballistic Missile Agency, located at Huntsville, Alabama, and renamed it the
Marshall Space Flight Center The George C. Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC), located in Redstone Arsenal, Alabama (Huntsville postal address), is the U.S. government's civilian rocketry and spacecraft propulsion research center. As the largest NASA center, MSFC's first ...
. By mid-1960, Glennan had secured for NASA primacy in the federal government for the execution of all space activities except reconnaissance satellites, ballistic missiles, and a few other space-related projects, most of which were still in the study stage, that the Defense Department controlled.


Later career

Upon leaving NASA in January 1961, Glennan returned to the Case Institute of Technology, where he continued to serve as president until 1966. During this period he helped to negotiate the merger of Case with Western Reserve University, creating
Case Western Reserve University Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) is a private research university in Cleveland, Ohio. Case Western Reserve was established in 1967, when Western Reserve University, founded in 1826 and named for its location in the Connecticut Western Reser ...
. After his retirement in 1966, Glennan spent two years as president of Associated Universities, Inc., a Washington-based advocate for institutions of higher education. A resident of
Reston, Virginia Reston is a census-designated place in Fairfax County, Virginia and a principal city of the Washington metropolitan area. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, Reston's population was 63,226. Founded in 1964, Reston was influenced by the Garden City movem ...
for twenty years after his retirement, he moved to Mitchellville, Maryland in the late 1980s. He died at Collington Life Care Community in Mitchellville in April 1995, after a
stroke A stroke is a medical condition in which poor blood flow to the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and hemorrhagic, due to bleeding. Both cause parts of the brain to stop functionin ...
. He was survived by his wife, Ruth (née Adams) Glennan.


References

*''Portions of this article are based on public domain biographical text fro
NASA
''


External links



* ttps://www.nytimes.com/1995/04/12/obituaries/t-keith-glennan-89-first-chief-of-space-agency.html?scp=1&sq=university+of+wisconsin+eau+claire+attended&st=nyt ''New York Times'' article* {{DEFAULTSORT:Glennan, T. Keith 1905 births 1995 deaths Administrators of NASA Case Western Reserve University faculty Columbia University staff Yale School of Engineering & Applied Science alumni University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire alumni People from Enderlin, North Dakota Presidents of Case Western Reserve University Eisenhower administration personnel