Robert Channing Seamans, Jr. (October 30, 1918 – June 28, 2008) was a
NASAThe National Aeronautics and Space Administration is an agency of the United States government, responsible for the nation's public space program. NASA was established by the National Aeronautics and Space Act on July 29, 1958, replacing its predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for...
Deputy Administrator and MIT professor.
He was born in
Salem, MassachusettsSalem is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 40,407 at the 2000 census. It and Lawrence are the county seats of Essex County...
to and Pauline and Robert Seamans. His great-great-grandfather was
Otis TuftsOtis Tufts was a machinist and inventor who built the first steam-operated printing press in the United States and invented the steam pile driver.-Biography:...
. Seamans attended Lenox School, in
Lenox, MassachusettsLenox is a town in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. Set in Western Massachusetts, it is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 5,077 at the 2000 census. It is the site of Tanglewood, summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra...
; earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering from
Harvard UniversityHarvard University is a private university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts and a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1636 by the colonial Massachusetts legislature, Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and currently comprises ten separate academic units...
in 1939 or 1940; a Master of Science degree in Aeronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1942; and a Doctor of Science degree in Instrumentation from MIT in 1951.
Robert Channing Seamans, Jr. (October 30, 1918 – June 28, 2008) was a
NASAThe National Aeronautics and Space Administration is an agency of the United States government, responsible for the nation's public space program. NASA was established by the National Aeronautics and Space Act on July 29, 1958, replacing its predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for...
Deputy Administrator and MIT professor.
Birth and education
He was born in
Salem, MassachusettsSalem is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 40,407 at the 2000 census. It and Lawrence are the county seats of Essex County...
to and Pauline and Robert Seamans. His great-great-grandfather was
Otis TuftsOtis Tufts was a machinist and inventor who built the first steam-operated printing press in the United States and invented the steam pile driver.-Biography:...
. Seamans attended Lenox School, in
Lenox, MassachusettsLenox is a town in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. Set in Western Massachusetts, it is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 5,077 at the 2000 census. It is the site of Tanglewood, summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra...
; earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering from
Harvard UniversityHarvard University is a private university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts and a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1636 by the colonial Massachusetts legislature, Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and currently comprises ten separate academic units...
in 1939 or 1940; a Master of Science degree in Aeronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1942; and a Doctor of Science degree in Instrumentation from MIT in 1951. Seamans also received the following honorary degrees: Doctor of Science from
Rollins CollegeRollins College is a liberal arts college located in Winter Park, Florida, United States, a suburb of Orlando, Florida. Its current president is Lewis Duncan...
(1962) and from
New York UniversityNew York University is a private, nonsectarian, research university in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
(1967); Doctor of Engineering from the
Norwich Free AcademyThe Norwich Free Academy founded in 1854 and in operation since 1856, is a high school located in the city of Norwich, Connecticut. The Academy serves as the primary high school for Norwich and the surrounding towns of Canterbury, Bozrah, Voluntown, Sprague, Lisbon, Franklin, Preston andseveral...
(1971), from the
University of Notre DameThe University of Notre Dame du Lac is a private Catholic research university located in Notre Dame, Indiana, USA....
(1974), and from
Rensselaer Polytechnic InstituteRensselaer Polytechnic Institute, or RPI, is a private research university located in Troy, New York, United States.RPI was founded in 1824 by Stephen Van Rensselaer for the "application of science to the common purposes of life", and is the oldest technological university in the English-speaking...
(RPI) in 1974.
Early career
From 1941 to 1955 he held teaching and project positions at MIT during which time he worked on aeronautical problems, including instrumentation and control of airplanes and missiles. Positions that he held at MIT included: Instructor (1941-1945), Assistant Professor (1945-1950), and Associate Professor (1950-1955), Department of Aeronautical Engineering; Project Engineer, Instrumentation Laboratory; Chief Engineer, Project Meteor; and Director, Flight Control Laboratory.
Seamans joined the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) in 1955 as Manager of the Airborne Systems Laboratory and Chief Systems Engineer of the Airborne Systems Department. In 1958, he became Chief Engineer of the Missile Electronics and Controls Division at RCA in Burlington, Massachusetts.
NACA and NASA career
From 1948 to 1958, Seamans also served on technical committees of NASA's predecessor organization, the
National Advisory Committee for AeronauticsThe National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics was a U.S. federal agency founded on March 3, 1915 to undertake, promote, and institutionalize aeronautical research. On October 1, 1958 the agency was dissolved, and its assets and personnel transferred to the newly created National Aeronautics and...
. He served as a consultant to the Scientific Advisory Board of the United States Air Force from 1957 to 1959, as a Member of the Board from 1959 to 1962, and as an Associate Advisor from 1962 to 1967. He was a National Delegate, Advisory Group for Aerospace Research and Development (NATO) from 1966 to 1969.
In 1960, Seamans joined NASA as Associate Administrator. In 1965, he became Deputy Administrator, retaining many of the general management-type responsibilities of the Associate Administrator and also serving as Acting Administrator. During his years at NASA he worked closely with the Department of Defense in research and engineering programs and served as Co-chairman of the Astronautics Coordinating Board. Through these associations, NASA was kept aware of military developments and technical needs of the Department of Defense and Seamans was able to advise that agency of NASA activities which had application to national security.
Post-NASA career
In January 1968 he resigned from NASA to become a visiting professor at MIT and in July 1968 was appointed to the
Jerome Clarke Hunsaker professorshipThe Jerome C. Hunsaker Visiting Professor of Aerospace Systems is a professorship established in 1954 by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics. It is named after MIT professor Jerome Hunsaker in honor of his achievements in aeronautical engineering...
, an MIT-endowed visiting professorship in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, named in honor of the founder of the Aeronautical Engineering Department. During this period with MIT, he was also a consultant to the Administrator of NASA.
In 1969 he became Secretary of the United States Air Force, serving until 1973. Seamans was also president of the
National Academy of EngineeringThe United States National Academy of Engineering , a private, non-profit institution that was founded in 1964 under the same congressional act that led to the founding of the National Academy of Sciences...
from May 1973 to December 1974, when he became the first administrator of the new
Energy Research and Development AdministrationThe United States Energy Research and Development Administration was a United States government organization formed from the split of the Atomic Energy Commission in 1975...
. He returned to MIT in 1977, becoming dean of its School of Engineering in 1978. In 1981 he was elected chair of the board of trustees of Aerospace Corp.
He died on June 28, 2008 in
Beverly, MassachusettsBeverly is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 39,862 at the 2000 census. A resort, residential and manufacturing community on the North Shore, Beverly includes Beverly Farms and Prides Crossing.-History:...
at age 89.
Legacy and honors
- There is a tall ship named Robert C. Seamans (ship). In the HBO miniseries From the Earth to the Moon, Seamans was played by Dann Florek
Dann Florek is an American actor and director.-Career:Florek attended Eastern Michigan University, but never graduated. He moved to New York City to pursue an acting career...
.