Townsend, John W., Jr. (John William), 1924-2011
Biographical Note
John W. Townsend, Jr. was born in 1924. He received a B.A. from Williams College in 1947, an M.A. in 1949, and a Sc.D. in 1961. After completing his M.A., Townsent went to work for the Naval Research Labororatory from 1949-1958, spending the last three years as a branch head. In 1958, he moved to NASA for a decade, including three years (1965-1968) as the deputy director fo the Goddard Space Center in Maryland. He left NASA in 1968 to serve as a deputy administrator in the Environmental Sciences Services Administration (1968-1970), and an associate adminstrator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (1970-1977). In 1977, he took a break from government work, serving as the president of Fairchild Space and Electronics Company (1977-1982) and, when the company changed names, president of Fairchild Space Company from 1983-1987. In 1987, he returned to NASA as director of the Goddard Space Center until his retirement in 1990. Townsend died in November 2011.