Joseph Gavin Jr.

Joseph G. Gavin, Jr. Joseph G. Gavin, Jr., a former President of Grumman Aerospace Corporation and Grumman's project manager for the Lunar Landing Module (LM), died in his home, Applewood, Amherst, Massachusetts, on October 30. He was 90. The cause of death was acute leukemia and pneumonia.Mr. Gavin was an aeronautical engineer with a lifelong interest in aircraft and space travel. As a youth he drew inspiration from Buck Rodgers and Charles A. Lindberghonce traveling hours to see "Lucky Lindy" land on a small field in Vermont. He was Class of '41 at MIT and captain of the varsity crew. After graduation from MIT in 1942 with a Masters in Aeronautical Engineering he entered the U.S. Naval Reserve with posting at the Naval Bureau of Aeronautics in Washington D.C. During this service, from 1942-1946, Lieutenant Gavin was involved in the early work on aircraft jet propulsion. In 1946 Mr. Gavin went to work for the Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation in Bethpage, Long Island, New York. He started in the lower engineering ranks as a design engineer on fighter aircraft and ended his career with nine years as the President and Chief Operating Officer of Grumman Corporation, retiring in 1985. It was as Vice President and Director, Lunar Module Program, that Mr. Gavin faced his greatest challenges in technological innovation, when Grumman won the NASA competition to build a lunar lander. There were no existing blueprints for lunar landers, and the craft had to be totally reliable. Lunar conditions could not be duplicated on Earth for full testing, and there was conflicting information about the suitability of the Moon's surface for a landing. Under Gavin's management, Tom Kelly, the LM Chief Design Engineer, and the Grumman team succeeded with a bold design of a craft that landed on the Moon and returned to lunar orbit six times. It also became a lifeboat during the aborted Apollo XIII mission. During that crisis Gavin was at NASA's Houston Mission Control Center helping to coordinate the urgent assessment of the LM's capabilities for this emergency assignment. In a discussion with the Grumman Plane News in 1979 Gavin remembered that it was the spirited teamwork at Grumman and across the nation that pulled off the amazing technological feat. For his contribution, NASA awarded Gavin its Distinguished Public Service Medal in 1971. Gavin's experience in managing technological innovation is revealed in an interview with Technology Review in 1994: "If a major project is truly innovative, you cannot possibly know its exact cost and its exact schedule at the beginning. And if in fact you do know the exact cost and the exact schedule, chances are that the technology is obsolete." Through Grumman's involvement in the Princeton Tokomak fusion energy project Gavin became interested in energy policy issues. His interest in energy policy, including solar and wind sources, continued in retirement; he spoke to many groups about it. Gavin was born on September 18, 1920 in Somerville, Massachusetts. He graduated from the Boston Latin School. At a 4-H camp one summer he met Dorothy Grace Dunklee of Brattleboro, Vermont. They married in 1943, a match that lasted 67 years until Gavin's death. Gavin was a man of family and community. He held many leadership positions, including Chairman of the Greenlawn-Centerport School Board and Chairman of the Huntington, Long Island, N.Y., Hospital Board of Directors. He was an active supporter of and fundraiser for his schools, and he was a Life Member Emeritus of the MIT Corporation, chairman of several visiting committees and Executive President of the MIT Alumni Association in 1986. His Memberships included: the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA), the International Astronautical Federation (IAF), the British Interplanetary Society (BIS), and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). He was a downhill skier until 86, a tennis player, and a history buff. He spoke German and read Latin. Gavin is survived by his wife, Dorothy, two sons, Joseph G. Gavin III of Arlington, Virginia, Donald L. Gavin of Kings Park, New York, and four grandchildren. A daughter, Tay Anne Gavin Erickson, predeceased him. Gavin will be buried at the Meeting House Hill Cemetery in West Brattleboro.