Hall of Distinguished Alumni - F. Story Musgrave

Born in Boston, Massachusetts, on August 19, 1935. Surgeon. Physiologist. Mathematician. Teacher. Researcher. Pilot. Astronaut. University of Kentucky, M.S., 1966. He has undergraduate degrees in mathematics and chemistry, a master of business administration degree in operations analysis and computer programming, a master’s degree in physiology and biophysics (UK), and a doctorate in medicine. He joined the U.S. Marine Corps in 1953 and after training served as an aviation electrician and instrument technician and as an aircraft crew chief while completing duty assignments in Korea, Japan, Hawaii, and aboard the carrier USS Wasp. He has flown 120 different types of civilian and military aircraft, logging over 14,000 hours of flying time. A parachutist, he has made more than 400 free falls, including over 100 experimental free-fall descents involved with the study of human aerodynamics. He was employed as a mathematician and operations analyst for the Eastman Kodak Company in 1958. He then returned to academic studies. He served a surgical internship at the University of Kentucky Medical Center from 1964 to 1965. He continued there as a U.S. Air Force post-doctoral fellow (1965-1966) working in aerospace medicine and physiology and as a National Heart Institute post doctoral fellow (1966-1967) teaching and doing research in cardiovascular and exercise physiology. He has written 35 scientific papers in the areas of aerospace medicine and physiology, temperature regulation, exercise physiology and clinical surgery. He was selected as a scientist-astronaut by NASA in 1967. He worked on the design and development of the Skylab Program, was the backup science-pilot for the first Skylab mission, and was a capsule communicator for the second and third Skylab missions. He participated in the design and development of all Space Shuttle extravehicular activity equipment. From 1979 to 1982, he was a test and verification pilot in the space shuttle avionics integration laboratory. He has continued clinical and scientific training as a part-time surgeon at the Denver General Hospital and as part-time professor of physiology and biophysics at the University of Kentucky Medical Center. He was a mission specialist on STS-6 which launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on April 4, 1983 and landed at Edwards Air Force Base, California, on April 9, 1983. He is a member of many organizations having to do with science, medicine, aviation, and parachuting. Among the honors he has received are the United States Air Force Post-Doctoral Fellowship (1966-1967); Reese Air Force Base Commander's Trophy (1969); American College of Surgeons I.S. Ravdin Lecture (1973); NASA Exceptional Service Medal (1974); Flying Physicians Association Airman of the Year Award (1974 and 1983). F. Story Musgrave was named to the Hall of Distinguished Alumni on May 10, 1985.