posted 03-26-2009 02:20 PM
I'm looking for some biographical information on G. Merritt Preston, who was one of the early NACA employees. He subsequently became Chief of the Preflight Operations Branch in Mercury and eventually managed all of the ground equipment operations for MSC at the Cape during Gemini. He was on the Apollo 1 investigation team and retired in 1972 as the first program manager for the Space Shuttle. He was awarded the Spirit of St. Louis Medal by the ASME in 1969 for meritorious service in the advancement of aeronautics and astronautics (Neil Armstrong was awarded the medal in 1972).I read his oral history notes from a 2000 NASA interview. Unfortunately, he was 84 at the time of the interview and pretty foggy about dates, people, and the work he had done.
Anyway, I'm interested to find out if anyone has any more detailed biographical data on Mr. Preston. I have several access badges that were issued to him in Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo days, and I would love to know more about his story.
He's on the right in this picture with Webb, JFK, Cooper, and Grissom during JFK's November 1963 tour of the Cape, and here he is in 1957. (Interesting tidbit about the photo of the Twin Mustang on the wall behind him: he said they used it as a drop plane for ramjet test vehicles.)
posted 03-26-2009 02:20 PM
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