William Randolph Lovelace II (December 30, 1907 – December 12, 1965) was an American
physician
A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...
who made contributions to
aerospace medicine
Aviation medicine, also called flight medicine or aerospace medicine, is a preventive or occupational medicine in which the patients/subjects are pilots, aircrews, or astronauts. The specialty strives to treat or prevent conditions to which airc ...
.
Biography
He studied medicine at the
Harvard Medical School
Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the graduate medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical Area of Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is one of the oldest medical schools in the United States and is consi ...
and graduated in 1934. His residences were served at
New York's
Bellevue Hospital
Bellevue Hospital (officially NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue and formerly known as Bellevue Hospital Center) is a hospital in New York City and the oldest public hospital in the United States. One of the largest hospitals in the United States ...
and the
Mayo Clinic in
Rochester, Minnesota. He then went to
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...
for further study.
Having an interest in aviation, he became Flight Surgeon with the rank of
First Lieutenant
First lieutenant is a commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces; in some forces, it is an appointment.
The rank of lieutenant has different meanings in different military formations, but in most forces it is sub-divided into a ...
in Army Medical Corps Reserve. He began studying the problems of high-altitude flight, and in 1938 the Aeromedical Field Laboratory located at
Wright Field
Wilbur Wright Field was a military installation and an airfield used as a World War I pilot, mechanic, and armorer training facility and, under different designations, conducted United States Army Air Corps and Air Forces flight testing. Lo ...
requested him to develop an oxygen-mask for use in high-altitude aircraft.
It was in 1940 that he first met
Jacqueline Cochran
Jacqueline Cochran (May 11, 1906 – August 9, 1980) was an American pilot and business executive. She pioneered women's aviation as one of the most prominent racing pilots of her generation. She set numerous records and was the first woman to br ...
, a female pilot who held three women's speed records. The two would form a lifelong friendship. With Cochran's influence, Lovelace developed a research program focusing on women's capabilities for spaceflight. Lovelace believed
women
A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a female child or adolescent). The plural ''women'' is sometimes used in certain phrases such as "women's rights" to denote female humans regardl ...
could be highly suitable for space because they were smaller and lighter for small space vehicles. Lovelace used his privately owned clinic to test twenty-five women. The women who were chosen all had to fulfill Lovelace's requirements: be under the age of 35, in good health, hold a second class medical certificate, have a bachelor's degree, hold an FAA commercial pilot rating or better, and have over 2,000 hours of flying time. Prior to beginning testing,
Lovelace's women had to undergo thorough examinations which included numerous x-rays and four hour eye exams. The women's bodies were physically tested by using special stationary bikes to test their respiration and ice water was shot into their ears to induce vertigo to see how quickly the women could recover.
Jerrie Cobb
Geraldyn M. Cobb (March 5, 1931 – March 18, 2019), commonly known as Jerrie Cobb, was an American aviator. She was also part of the Mercury 13, a group of women who underwent physiological screening tests at the same time as the original Mer ...
successfully completed all of the same medical testing as the
Mercury Seven
The Mercury Seven were the group of seven astronauts selected to fly spacecraft for Project Mercury. They are also referred to as the Original Seven and Astronaut Group 1. Their names were publicly announced by NASA on April 9, 1959; these sev ...
men. Twelve more of Lovelace's women were chosen, but their testing ended suddenly due to the United States Navy no longer granting access to the final testing facility in Pensacola.
During
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
, Lovelace served in the
United States Army Air Forces
The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...
. He personally performed experiments in escape and the use of the parachute at high-altitude. On 24 June 1943 he bailed out of an aircraft flying at . After the parachute opened he was knocked unconscious, and he suffered frostbite when one of his gloves was ripped off. For this test he was awarded the
Distinguished Flying Cross.
His wife Mary had two sons, but both died of
poliomyelitis in 1946. The couple also had three daughters. In 1947 they moved to
Albuquerque, New Mexico, and he joined his uncle at
Lovelace Clinic
Lovelace Health System is a healthcare company which operates six hospitals in New Mexico, five in Albuquerque and one in Roswell. It is one of New Mexico's largest employers with 3,659 employees as of 2020. The company grew out of the Lovelace ...
, with whom he established the Lovelace Medical Foundation, currently known as the
Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute
Lovelace Biomedical Research Institute is a private contract research organization that is part of Touro University and New York Medical College (NYMC). It was founded after WWII in Albuquerque, New Mexico by two physicians, William Randolph Lo ...
, in Albuquerque. He became the chairman of the Board of Governors. His first hire was
Clayton Sam White for director of research. Lovelace used this clinic to promote the development of medical aerospace technology.
Work for the U.S. government
From 1951 to 1952, Lovelace served as chair of the
Armed Forces Medical Policy Council.
In 1951, Lovelace's clinic was awarded a contract by the
United States 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 ...
to conduct field and laboratory experiments on the injuries caused by
nuclear detonation
A nuclear explosion is an explosion that occurs as a result of the rapid release of energy from a high-speed nuclear reaction. The driving reaction may be nuclear fission or nuclear fusion or a multi-stage cascading combination of the two, t ...
on more than a dozen different kinds of animals. The clinic monitored how fast various species of animals died and the number of scars on the lungs of the various animals caused by
nuclear shock waves.
Lovelace's clinic tested pilots assigned to fly the
Lockheed U-2
The Lockheed U-2, nicknamed "''Dragon Lady''", is an American single-jet engine, high altitude reconnaissance aircraft operated by the United States Air Force (USAF) and previously flown by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). It provides day ...
spy plane of the U.S.
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...
. Experiments on the effects of high-altitude flight on the pilots were conducted by former
Operation Paperclip
Operation Paperclip was a secret United States intelligence program in which more than 1,600 German scientists, engineers, and technicians were taken from the former Nazi Germany to the U.S. for government employment after the end of World War ...
recruit
Ulrich Cameron Luft, who had conducted tests for the
Nazi
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...
Luftwaffe
The ''Luftwaffe'' () was the aerial-warfare branch of the German ''Wehrmacht'' before and during World War II. Germany's military air arms during World War I, the ''Luftstreitkräfte'' of the Imperial Army and the '' Marine-Fliegerabtei ...
on the physiological effects of high-altitude activities before and during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
.
In 1958 he was appointed the chairman of the NASA Special Advisory Committee on Life Sciences. As head of NASA's Life Sciences, he would then play a key role in the selection of the
astronauts chosen for
Project Mercury
Project Mercury was the first human spaceflight program of the United States, running from 1958 through 1963. An early highlight of the Space Race, its goal was to put a man into Earth orbit and return him safely, ideally before the Soviet Un ...
. In 1959
[Nolen, Stephanie. ''Promised the Moon: The Untold Story of the First Women in the Space Race.'' New York: Four Walls Eight Windows, 2003. p. 109.] he also began
examinations to determine the physical suitability of women candidates for the astronaut training program. In 1964 he was appointed
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil List of government space agencies, space program ...
’s Director of Space Medicine.
Death
On December 12, 1965, Lovelace and his wife were being flown in a private plane near
Aspen, Colorado
Aspen is a home rule municipality that is the county seat and the most populous municipality of Pitkin County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 7,004 at the 2020 United States Census. Aspen is in a remote area of the Rocky Moun ...
when the plane crashed into a canyon. Dr. and Mrs. Lovelace, along with their pilot, Milton Brown (27), died at the crash site. Their bodies were found by a search party days later after their efforts were delayed due to a severe snow storm. The pilot had arranged Dr. and Mrs. Lovelace next to each other and covered them with a coat before he died of his injuries and exposure.
Notes
External links
David Darling encyclopediaWilliam Randolph Lovelace II AwardFind A Grave
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lovelace, William Randolph
1907 births
1965 deaths
Accidental deaths in Colorado
People from Springfield, Missouri
Military personnel from Missouri
Harvard Medical School alumni
NASA people
Recipients of the Distinguished Flying Cross (United States)
United States Army Medical Corps officers
Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in 1965
Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in the United States
United States Air Force generals
20th-century American physicians
Physicians from Missouri
United States Air Force reservists