John Glenn

John Herschel Glenn Jr. was born on July 18, 1921, in Cambridge, Ohio. Shortly after his birth the family moved to nearby New Concord, where he attended New Concord High School before enrolling at Muskingum College, from which he received a Bachelor of Science degree in engineering.⁠[1][2][3]

He entered the Naval Aviation Cadet Program in March 1942 and was commissioned in the Marine Corps in 1943. During World War II he flew 59 combat missions in the South Pacific.⁠[3][1]

In the Korean War he flew 63 missions with Marine Fighter Squadron 311 and 27 more as an exchange pilot in the F-86, downing three MiGs along the Yalu River in the last nine days of fighting. In 1954 he graduated from the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School at Patuxent River, MarylandMarylandMaryland is a Middle Atlantic state of the United States, deeply indented by Chesapeake Bay and bordered by Pennsylvania, Delaware, Virginia, the District of Columbia and West Virginia; its capital is Annapolis and its largest city is Baltimore. One of the original 13 states, it ratified the U.S. Constitution on April 28, 1788, as the seventh state to do so, and had a population of 6,177,224 in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020).Open the full entry.⁠[3][1]

In July 1957, as project officer for the F8U Crusader, he set a Los Angeles-to-New York speed record of 3 hours 23 minutes, the first transcontinental flight at an average supersonic speed.⁠[3][1]

In 1959 he was selected as one of the first U.S. astronauts, the oldest of the group, and in April he was assigned to NASANASAThe National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is the U.S. federal agency responsible for the civilian space program, aeronautics research and space science. Established by law in 1958 and headquartered in Washington, D.C., it has run programs including Mercury, the Apollo Moon landings, the Space Shuttle, the International Space Station and Artemis.Open the full entry’s Space Task Group; that year he was also promoted to lieutenant colonel.⁠[1][3]

On February 20, 1962, he piloted Mercury-Atlas 6, the spacecraft Friendship 7, on the first crewed orbital mission of the United States, completing three orbits in 4 hours, 55 minutes and 23 seconds from launch to impact. After a thruster malfunctioned he flew much of the mission manually.⁠[3][1]

On January 16, 1964, he resigned from the Manned Spacecraft Center to seek the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate in Ohio; about a month after announcing, he injured his inner ear in a fall in a bathroom and withdrew. He was promoted to colonel in October 1964 and retired from the Marine Corps on January 1, 1965.⁠[3][1]

In 1965 he became vice president for domestic corporate development at Royal Crown Cola and later its president. In 1970 he narrowly lost a primary for the U.S. Senate.⁠[1]

He was elected to the U.S. Senate in November 1974, carrying all 88 counties of Ohio, and served from 1975 to 1999. He was reelected in 1980 by the largest margin in Ohio history and won a third term in 1986; his 1992 victory made him the first popularly elected senator from Ohio to win four consecutive terms.⁠[3][1][2]

In the Senate he focused on nuclear proliferation, wasteful government spending and aging. He chaired the Governmental Affairs Committee from 1987 to 1995; by 1998 he was ranking minority member of that committee and of the subcommittee on AirLand Forces, and served on the Select Committee on Intelligence and the Special Committee on Aging.⁠[1][2][2]

In 1984 he sought the Democratic presidential nomination without success.⁠[1]

In 1997 he returned to Muskingum College in New Concord to announce his retirement from the Senate, and he left office in January 1999.⁠[2][3]

From October 29 to November 7, 1998, at age 77, he flew as a payload specialist aboard the space shuttle Discovery on STS-95, a nine-day mission of 134 Earth orbits lasting 213 hours and 44 minutes. NASA cited the flight’s value for research on aging, while critics called it a publicity stunt.⁠[3][1]

After retiring from the Senate in 1999 he gave his archives and memorabilia to Ohio State University and founded the John Glenn Institute. The institute combined with the School of Public Policy and Management to open as the John Glenn School of Public Affairs on July 1, 2006, and on January 29, 2015, the university’s Board of Trustees approved its elevation to the John Glenn College of Public Affairs.⁠[4]

He died on December 8, 2016, in Columbus, Ohio, at age 95. He was interred at Arlington National Cemetery in VirginiaVirginiaVirginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state whose capital is Richmond. It entered the Union on June 25, 1788, as the 10th state, and had a population of 8,631,393 in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020).Open the full entry on April 6, 2017.⁠[1][5]

In 1943 he married Anna Margaret “Annie” Castor of New Concord; they had a son, John David, and a daughter, Carolyn Ann (Lyn), and were married for 73 years. Annie Glenn died on May 19, 2020, in St. Paul, MinnesotaMinnesotaMinnesota is a state in the north-central United States and the most northerly of the 48 contiguous states; its capital is St. Paul and its largest city is Minneapolis. It was admitted to the Union on May 11, 1858, as the 32nd state, and its population in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) was 5,706,494.Open the full entry, at age 100.⁠[2][2][6]

He received the Distinguished Flying Cross six times, the Air Medal with 18 clusters, the Congressional Space Medal of Honor and the NASA Distinguished Service Medal, as well as honorary doctorates from nine colleges or universities. On March 1, 1999, NASA renamed its Cleveland center the John H. Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field.⁠[3]

NASA: Official website: https://www.nasa.gov/ (opens in a new window).⁠[7]

John Glenn College of Public Affairs (Ohio State University): Web page: https://glenn.osu.edu/about-john-glenn-college-public-affairs/history (opens in a new window).⁠[4]