March 6, 1986
The President today announced his intention to nominate James C. Fletcher to be Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. He would succeed James M. Beggs.
Dr. Fletcher is a consulting engineer and also serves as the Whiteford professor at the University of Pittsburgh. He served as the Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in 1971 - 1977. He was the president of the University of Utah in 1964 - 1971. He was a founder of Space Electronics Corp. in 1958 and served as president until 1960, when the company merged with Aerojet-General Corp. to form Space-General Corp. He became president of Space-General Corp. in 1960 and served as chairman of the board in 1961 - 1964. Dr. Fletcher served as a consultant, then member, of the President's Science Advisory Committee in 1958 - 1970 and a member of the Air Force Science Advisory Board in 1962 - 1967. He was made an associate fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics in 1962 and a trustee of the Aerospace Education Foundation in 1966.
He graduated from Columbia University (A.B., 1940), California Institute of Technology (Ph.D., 1948), and Lehigh University (LL.D., 1978). He is married, has four children, and resides in McLean, VA. He was born June 5, 1919, in Millburn, NJ.