Guyford Stever | |
|---|---|
 | |
| 1st Director of theOffice of Science and Technology Policy | |
| In office August 9, 1976 – January 20, 1977 | |
| President | Gerald Ford |
| Preceded by | Ed David (Science and Technology, 1973) |
| Succeeded by | Frank Press |
| 4th Director of theNational Science Foundation | |
| In office 1972–1976 | |
| President | Richard Nixon Gerald Ford |
| Preceded by | William D. McElroy |
| Succeeded by | Richard C. Atkinson |
| 5th President ofCarnegie Mellon University | |
| In office 1965–1972 | |
| Preceded by | John Warner |
| Succeeded by | Richard Cyert |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Horton Guyford Stever (1916-10-24)October 24, 1916 Corning, New York, U.S. |
| Died | April 9, 2010(2010-04-09) (aged 93) Gaithersburg, Maryland, U.S. |
| Education | Colgate University (BS) California Institute of Technology (MS,PhD) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Physics |
| Institutions | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| Thesis | 1. The discharge mechanism of Geiger counters. 2. The mean lifetime of the mesotron from electroscope data (1941) |
| Doctoral advisor | Victor Neher |
Horton Guyford Stever (October 24, 1916 – April 9, 2010) was anAmericanadministrator, physicist, educator, and engineer. He was a director of theNational Science Foundation (from February 1972 to August 1976).[1]
Stever was raised inCorning, New York, principally by his maternal grandmother. He played football in high school. He graduated fromColgate University with an undergraduate degree inphysics and then fromCalifornia Institute of Technology in 1941 with aPhD in physics.[2] He joined the staff of the radiation lab atMIT. In 1942 he began serving the military as a civilian scientific liaison officer based inLondon, England until the end ofWorld War II. AfterD-Day he was sent toFrance several times to studyGerman technology.
He returned to MIT after the war, serving asassociate dean of engineering there from 1956 to 1959 and then as a department head. In 1965 he became the fifthPresident ofCarnegie Mellon University (and the first under that name, in 1967), a position he held until 1972. Stever House, a dorm on Carnegie Mellon's campus is named for him. During this period, he was also chairman of the aeronautics and space engineering board for theNational Academy of Engineering advising NASA and other Federal agencies.[3]
He also served as the director of the National Science Foundation from 1972 until 1976. Between 1976 and 1977 he was PresidentGerald Ford'sScience Advisor.
He also served on the board of trustees of Science Service, now known asSociety for Science & the Public, from 1982 to 2006.
Stever received an LL.D. fromBates College in 1977. In 1997, he received theVannevar Bush Award from the National Science Board.
Stever died at his home inGaithersburg, Maryland on April 9, 2010.[4]
Guyford Stever was chairman or member of numerousadvisory committees to the U.S. government. TheNACA'sSpecial Committee on Space Technology, also called the "Stever Committee," was among the better-known of these. It was a specialsteering committee that was formed with the mandate to coordinate various branches of the Federal government, private companies as well as universities within the United States with NACA's objectives and also harness their expertise in order to develop aspace program.[5]
Remarkably,Hendrik Wade Bode, the man who helped develop the robot weapons that brought down theNaziV-1 flying bombs overLondon duringWWII, was actually serving on the same committee and sitting at the same table as the chief engineer of theV-2, the other weapon that terrorised London:Wernher von Braun.[6][7]
As of their meeting on May 26, 1958, committee members, starting clockwise from the left of the adjacent picture, included:[5]
| Committee member | Title |
|---|---|
| Edward R. Sharp | Director of theLewis Flight Propulsion Laboratory |
| Colonel Norman C Appold | Assistant to the Deputy Commander for Weapons Systems,Air Research and Development Command:US Air Force |
| Abraham Hyatt | Research and Analysis Officer Bureau of Aeronautics,Department of the Navy |
| Hendrik Wade Bode | Director of Research Physical Sciences,Bell Telephone Laboratories |
| William Randolph Lovelace II | Lovelace Foundation for Medication Education and Research |
| S. K Hoffman | General Manager, Rocketdyne Division,North American Aviation |
| Milton U Clauser | Director, Aeronautical Research Laboratory, TheRamo-Wooldridge Corporation |
| H. Julian Allen | Chief, High Speed Flight Research,NACA Ames |
| Robert R. Gilruth | Assistant Director,NACA Langley |
| J. R. Dempsey | Manager.Convair-Astronautics (Division ofGeneral Dynamics) |
| Carl B. Palmer | Secretary to Committee,NACA Headquarters |
| H. Guyford Stever | Chairman, Associate Dean of Engineering,Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| Hugh L. Dryden | (ex officio), Director, NACA |
| Dale R. Corson | Department of Physics,Cornell University |
| Abe Silverstein | Associate Director,NACA Lewis |
| Wernher von Braun | Director, Development Operations Division,Army Ballistic Missile Agency |
In 1990 Stever chaired aCommittee on Human Exploration of Space for theNational Research Council. The committee released a report titled,Human Exploration of Space: A Review of NASA's 90-Day Study and Alternatives.[8]
| Academic offices | ||
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| Preceded by | President ofCarnegie Mellon University 1965–1972 | Succeeded by |
| Government offices | ||
| Preceded by | Director of theNational Science Foundation 1972–1976 | Succeeded by |
| Vacant Title last held by Ed David1973 as Director of the Office of Science and Technology | Director of theOffice of Science and Technology Policy 1976–1977 | Succeeded by |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Academics | |
| People | |
| Other | |
