"Whether or not you reach your goals in life depends entirely on how well you prepare for them and how badly you want them. You're eagles! Stretch your wings and fly to the sky!"

-- Ronald E. McNair

Ronald McNair was born in Lake City, South Carolina, on October 21, 1950.  He died in the Space Shuttle Challenger accident on January 28, 1986.  His wife, Cheryl, continues to work on issues of science and education through the Challenger Center, a non-profit organization founded by the families of the survivors of the space shuttle (http://www.challenger.org/about/index.cfm).

Dr. McNair received his bachelor’s degree from North Carolina A&T in 1971 and his Ph.D. from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1976.  Both degrees were in physics. After completing his degree he worked at the Hughes Research Laboratories in Malibu, California. He then joined NASA in 1978 as a candidate astronaut. In his eight years at NASA, Dr. McNair logged in over 191 hours in space.

 

On January 28, 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger explosion also took the lives of six other crewmen, including Mr. F.R. Scobee, Commander M.J. Smith (USN), Lieutenant Colonel E.S. Onizuka (USAF), and Dr. J.A. Resnik, Mr. G.B. Jarvis and Mrs. S. C. McAuliffe.

In 1989, Congress created the Ronald E. McNair Postbaccalaureate Achievement program to assist first-generation, low-income and under-represented students to attend graduate school.   McNair programs are housed at 178 universities in the US.  The goal of the program is to prepare undergraduate students for doctoral studies.

Click here for more information about Dr. Ronald E. McNair from the NASA Website.