posted 01-01-2007 12:19 PM               

From the Associated Press (via Jim Oberg):

A family spokesman says McLeaish died Tuesday in a San Antonio nursing home after a long illness. He'd lived in San Antonio since 1999. A graveside service is scheduled for tomorrow afternoon at the Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery in San Antonio.

The Houston-born, Weslaco-reared McLeaish was working at Houston's Ellington Air Force Base when NASA recruited him in 1962. He became the chief of public information at what was then the NASA Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston in 1968 and remained with NASA until 1984.

He was the Mission Control commentator and provided news briefings on space flight events from the Gemini program through the early shuttle flights.

As part of his job, he spent several weeks in quarantine with the crew of the Apollo Eleven mission that made the first landing on the moon. Years later, he said he even tasted a bit of moon dust. He called it "kind of tasteless."

Survivors include his wife, two sons, a daughter, two granddaughters and a brother.

posted 01-01-2007 01:01 PM               

He was public affairs commentator as Apollo 8 entered orbit around the moon, and as Sally Ride became the first American woman in space, among other missions. Here are a few excerpts:

Spacecraft commander Borman acknowledged in equally unmemorable style: "O.K., Apollo 8 is go."

"You are riding the best bird we can find," Carr assured the astronauts.

"Two minutes and 50 seconds away from time of loss of signal," Commentator John McLeaish reported, as Apollo began to curve around the back side of the moon, where its radio communication with earth would be blocked. "Here in mission control we're standing by with certainly a great deal of anxiety at this moment."

"Shortly after liftoff, John McLeaish, a public affairs officer at Mission Control in Houston, announced, "Space shuttle Challenger has delivered to space the largest human payload of all time — four men, one woman.'"

posted 01-02-2007 04:40 PM               

The other guys and gals in the office must have got tired hearing from me and started passing stuff on to his desk. Sad news, but a long and dedicated life!

posted 01-02-2007 05:55 PM               

Along with Brian Duff, Terry White, Jack Riley, Doug Ward and others, McLeaish became one of NASA's primary spokesman for the Apollo Program, as the voice of Mission Control, as the author of numerous press releases and the focal point for disseminating information to the press and to the public. They later played similar roles in Skylab, Apollo Soyuz and the early Shuttle program.