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| Born: | September 21, 1934 Munising, Michigan |
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| Career information | |
| Position(s) | T |
| College | Air Force |
| Career highlights and awards | |
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Brock Strom (born September 21, 1934) is a former American football player, Rhodes scholar, Air Force officer, and engineer.
He was head of engineering for NAVSTAR GPS satellite program at the USAF Space & Missile Systems Organization (SAMSO), precursor to the Space Command and Space Force.
Strom was born in Munising, Michigan. [1]
Strom was a member of the first graduating class of the United States Air Force Academy (USAFA) in 1959. He was captain of the undefeated 1958 football team, and became the Academy's first All-American. He gained the honor when players played offense and defense and just 11 were selected. Strom played tackle on the offensive and defensive lines. [2] [3]
He earned an M.S. from MIT in 1961, [4] [5] and a Ph.D. from Arizona State University in 1971. [6]
He flew 90 missions as a navigator in Vietnam, and was decorated with two Distinguished Flying Crosses, two Bronze Stars, and three Air Medals. [7] [8]
As a lieutenant colonel, he became Director of Engineering in the GPS Joint Program Office. [9] [10] [11]
After retiring from the Air Force as a colonel, he joined Burlington Northern Railroad as the director of the Advanced Railroad Electronics System (ARES), which used GPS for positive train control. [12] [13] He became Vice President, Information Systems Services, at Burlington Northern Railroad in April 1988. [14]
He later became a professor at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado where he lived until he retired.
Edward Higgins White II was an American aeronautical engineer, United States Air Force officer, test pilot, and NASA astronaut. He was a member of the crews of Gemini 4 and Apollo 1.
Munising is a city in the Upper Peninsula of the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 1,986 at the 2020 census, thus making it the 17th largest in the Upper Peninsula. It is the county seat of Alger County. The city is partially surrounded by Munising Township, but the two are administered autonomously.
Ironwood is a city in Gogebic County in the Upper Peninsula of the U.S. state of Michigan, about 18 miles (29 km) south of Lake Superior. The city is on US Highway 2 across the Montreal River from Hurley, Wisconsin. It is the westernmost city in Michigan, situated on the same line of longitude as Clinton, Iowa and St. Louis, Missouri. The population was 5,045 at the 2020 census, down from 5,387 at the 2010 census. The city is bordered by Ironwood Township to the north, but the two are administered autonomously.
Guion Stewart Bluford Jr. is an American aerospace engineer, retired United States Air Force (USAF) officer and fighter pilot, and former NASA astronaut, in which capacity he became the first African American to go to space. While assigned to NASA, he remained a USAF officer rising to the rank of colonel. He participated in four Space Shuttle flights between 1983 and 1992. In 1983, as a member of the crew of the Orbiter Challenger on the mission STS-8, he became the first African American in space as well as the second black person in space, after Cuban cosmonaut Arnaldo Tamayo Méndez.
Karol Joseph "Bo" Bobko was an American aerospace engineer, U.S. Air Force officer, test pilot, and a USAF and NASA astronaut. Bobko was the first graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy to travel in space and the first person to fly on three different space shuttles across three different missions: STS-6, STS-51-D, STS-51-J.
Ivan Alexander Getting was an American physicist and electrical engineer, credited with the development of the Global Positioning System (GPS). He was the co-leader of the research group which developed the SCR-584, an automatic microwave tracking fire-control system, which enabled M9 Gun Director directed anti-aircraft guns to destroy a significant percentage of the German V-1 flying bombs launched against London late in the Second World War.
John Joseph Lattner was an American football halfback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for one season with the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1954. He played college football for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, where he won the Heisman Trophy in 1953 and also won the Maxwell Award twice, in 1952 and 1953.
The Commander-in-Chief's Trophy is awarded to each season's winner of the American college football series among the teams of the U.S. Military Academy, the U.S. Naval Academy, and the U.S. Air Force Academy.
Bradford Parkinson is an American engineer and inventor, retired United States Air Force Colonel and Emeritus Professor at Stanford University. He is best known as the lead architect, advocate and developer, with early contributions from Ivan Getting and Roger Easton, of the Air Force NAVSTAR program, better known as Global Positioning System.
Gogebic–Iron County Airport is a county-owned public-use airport located seven nautical miles (13 km) northeast of the central business district of Ironwood, a city in Gogebic County, Michigan, United States. It is mostly used for general aviation, but it also offers scheduled passenger service which is subsidized by the Essential Air Service program.
FalconSAT is the United States Air Force Academy's (USAFA) small satellite engineering program. Satellites are designed, built, tested, and operated by Academy cadets. The project is administered by the USAFA Space Systems Research Center under the direction of the Department of Astronautics. Most of the cadets who work on the project are pursuing a bachelor of science degree in astronautical engineering, although students from other disciplines join the project.
Roger Lee Easton, Sr. was an American physicist and state representative who was the principal inventor and designer of the Global Positioning System, along with Ivan A. Getting and Bradford Parkinson.
Maxine Joyce "Micki" King is an American former competitive diver and diving coach. She was a gold medal winner at the 1972 Summer Olympics in the three meter springboard event.
Clarence Leonard "Kelly" Johnson was an American aeronautical and systems engineer. He is recognized for his contributions to a series of important aircraft designs, most notably the Lockheed U-2 and SR-71 Blackbird. Besides the first production aircraft to exceed Mach 3, he also produced the first fighter capable of Mach 2, the United States' first operational jet fighter, as well as the first fighter to exceed 400 mph, and many other contributions to various aircraft.
Arthur E. Redner was an American football player and coach. He played halfback for the University of Michigan in 1900 and 1901 and was the last surviving member of Fielding H. Yost's renowned 1901 "Point-a-Minute" football team.
Lyman L. "Frim" Frimodig was an American athlete, college basketball coach and athletics administrator. He was the only athlete in the history of Michigan State University to receive ten varsity letters, four each in basketball and baseball and two in football. He held the school's single-game scoring record in basketball for 35 years. He was the head coach of the school's basketball team from 1920 to 1922 and subsequently served the school until 1960 as a professor of health and physical education, assistant athletics director, ticket sales manager, and athletics department business manager. He also served four years as the mayor of East Lansing, Michigan, from 1933 to 1937.
Reuben W. Kelto was an American football player. He played at the tackle position for the University of Michigan from 1939 to 1941. He was chosen as the Most Valuable Player on the 1941 Michigan Wolverines football team.
Lieutenant General William Earl Thurman is a retired United States Air Force Lieutenant General who was commander, Aeronautical Systems Division, Air Force Systems Command, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio.
James Julius Spilker Jr. was an American engineer and a consulting professor in the aeronautics and astronautics department at Stanford University. He was one of the principal architects of the Global Positioning System (GPS). He was the co-founder of the space communications company Stanford Telecommunications, and later was the executive chairman of AOSense Inc., Sunnyvale, CA.
Gladys Mae West is an American mathematician. She is known for her contributions to mathematical modeling of the shape of the Earth, and her work on the development of satellite geodesy models, that were later incorporated into the Global Positioning System (GPS). West was inducted into the United States Air Force Hall of Fame in 2018. West was awarded the Webby Lifetime Achievement Award for the development of satellite geodesy models.
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