Background
He was born on March 23, 1929, in El Dorado, Arkansas.
He was born on March 23, 1929, in El Dorado, Arkansas.
He graduated in 1950 from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette (then named Southwestern Louisiana Institute) with a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering. He earned a Master of Science degree in Aeronautical Engineering from the United States. Air Force Institute of Technology in 1959.
As a United States Air Force Test Pilot School graduate, he was selected as a military astronaut designee in the second group of X-20 Dyna-Soar astronauts on April 20, 1962 and assigned as a Dyna-Soar pilot on September 20, 1962. The Dyna-Soar program was cancelled in 1963. On November 12, 1965 he was selected as an astronaut in the first group for the Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL) program
He transferred to National Aeronautics and Space Administration Flight Crew Directorate at the Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas in June 1969 when the MOL program was cancelled.
He remained a pilot for National Aeronautics and Space Administration, flying such aircraft as the "Super Guppy" outsize cargo transport, the World Bank-57F atmospheric research aircraft and the OV-095 SAIL Space Shuttle simulator until he retired at age 65.