Guyford Stever

Guyford Stever
1st Director of theOffice of Science and Technology Policy
In office August 9, 1976 – January 20, 1977
President	Gerald Ford
Preceded by	Ed David(Science and Technology, 1973)
Succeeded by	Frank Press
4th Director of theNational Science Foundation
In office 1972–1976
President	Richard Nixon Gerald Ford
Preceded by	William D. McElroy
Succeeded by	Richard C. Atkinson
5th President ofCarnegie Mellon University
In office 1965–1972
Preceded by	John Warner
Succeeded by	Richard Cyert
Personal details
Born	Horton Guyford Stever (1916-10-24)October 24, 1916 Corning, New York,U.S.
Died	April 9, 2010(2010-04-09)(aged 93) Gaithersburg, Maryland,U.S.
Education	Colgate University(BS) California Institute of Technology(MS,PhD)
Scientific career
Fields	Physics
Institutions	Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Thesis	1. The discharge mechanism of Geiger counters. 2. The mean lifetime of the mesotron from electroscope data(1941)
Doctoral advisor	Victor Neher

Horton Guyford Stever(October 24, 1916 – April 9, 2010) was anAmericanadministrator,physicist, educator, and engineer. He was a director of theNational Science Foundation(from February 1972 to August 1976).

Biography

Stever was raised inCorning, New York,principally by his maternal grandmother. He played football in high school. He graduated fromColgate Universitywith an undergraduate degree inphysicsand then fromCalifornia Institute of Technologyin 1941 with aPhDin physics.He joined the staff of the radiation lab atMIT.In 1942 he began serving the military as a civilian scientific liaison officer based inLondon, Englanduntil the end ofWorld War II.AfterD-Dayhe was sent toFranceseveral times to studyGermantechnology.

He returned to MIT after the war, serving asassociate deanof engineering there from 1956 to 1959 and then as a department head. In 1965 he became the fifthPresidentofCarnegie Mellon University(and the first under that name, in 1967), a position he held until 1972. Stever House, a dorm on Carnegie Mellon's campus is named for him. During this period, he was also chairman of the aeronautics and space engineering board for theNational Academy of Engineeringadvising NASA and other Federal agencies.

He also served as the director of the National Science Foundation from 1972 until 1976. Between 1976 and 1977 he was PresidentGerald Ford'sScience Advisor.

He also served on the board of trustees of Science Service, now known asSociety for Science & the Public,from 1982 to 2006.

Stever received an LL.D. fromBates Collegein 1977. In 1997, he received theVannevar Bush Awardfrom the National Science Board.

Stever died at his home inGaithersburg, Marylandon April 9, 2010.

NACA Special Committee on Space Technology

Guyford Stever was chairman or member of numerousadvisory committeesto the U.S. government. TheNACA'sSpecial Committee on Space Technology,also called the "Stever Committee," was among the better-known of these. It was a specialsteering committeethat was formed with the mandate to coordinate various branches of the Federal government, private companies as well as universities within the United States with NACA's objectives and also harness their expertise in order to develop aspace program.

NACA's Special Committee on Space Technology in their May 26, 1958 meeting. At the head of the table:Wernher von Braun.Dr. Stever is fourth to his right.Hendrik Wade Bodeis fourth from the left.

Remarkably,Hendrik Wade Bode,the man who helped develop the robot weapons that brought down theNaziV-1 flying bombsoverLondonduringWWII,was actually serving on the same committee and sitting at the same table as the chief engineer of theV-2,the other weapon that terrorised London:Wernher von Braun.

As of their meeting on May 26, 1958, committee members, starting clockwise from the left of the adjacent picture, included:

Committee member	Title
Edward R. Sharp	Director of theLewis Flight Propulsion Laboratory
Colonel Norman C Appold	Assistant to the Deputy Commander for Weapons Systems,Air Research and Development Command:US Air Force
Abraham Hyatt	Research and Analysis Officer Bureau of Aeronautics,Department of the Navy
Hendrik Wade Bode	Director of Research Physical Sciences,Bell Telephone Laboratories
William Randolph Lovelace II	Lovelace Foundation for Medication Education and Research
S. K Hoffman	General Manager, Rocketdyne Division,North American Aviation
Milton U Clauser	Director, Aeronautical Research Laboratory, TheRamo-Wooldridge Corporation
H. Julian Allen	Chief, High Speed Flight Research,NACA Ames
Robert R. Gilruth	Assistant Director,NACA Langley
J. R. Dempsey	Manager.Convair-Astronautics(Division ofGeneral Dynamics)
Carl B. Palmer	Secretary to Committee,NACA Headquarters
H. Guyford Stever	Chairman, Associate Dean of Engineering,Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Hugh L. Dryden	(ex officio), Director, NACA
Dale R. Corson	Department of Physics,Cornell University
Abe Silverstein	Associate Director,NACA Lewis
Wernher von Braun	Director, Development Operations Division,Army Ballistic Missile Agency

NRC Committee on Human Exploration of Space

In 1990 Stever chaired aCommittee on Human Exploration of Spacefor theNational Research Council.The committee released a report titled,Human Exploration of Space: A Review of NASA's 90-Day Study and Alternatives.

Honors

• Elected to theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences,1953.
• Elected to theAmerican Philosophical Society,2001.

References

• Fenton, Edwin (2000).Carnegie Mellon 1900-2000: A Centennial History.Pittsburgh: Carnegie Mellon University Press.ISBN0-88748-323-2.
• Stever, H. Guyford (2002).In War and Peace: My Life in Science and Technology.Joseph Henry Press.ISBN0-309-08411-3.
• H. Guyford Stever Oral Historyfrom IEEE via the Engineering and Technology History Wiki
• Announcement of his death