FPN10-58

Joe Gavin Passes, Age 90

November 8, 2010

Joseph G. Gavin Jr., who rode herd over the immensely complex design, construction and testing of the first manned vehicle to land on the moon — a task that included anticipating 400 different landing surfaces, from ice to boulders to dust to potholes — died on Saturday November 6 in Amherst, Mass. He was 90. The cause was acute leukemia and pneumonia, his family said.

An MIT-trained engineer who had worked on early jet aircraft engines during World War II, Joe managed the 7,500-member team that made the Eagle, the clunky lunar module that settled on the lunar surface, in a spot called the Sea of Tranquillity, on July 20, 1969. "Houston, Tranquillity Base here," Neil A. Armstrong, the Apollo 11 commander, announced to mission control as half a billion people watched on television. "The Eagle has landed."

Joe would go on to be president, chief operating officer and chairman of the executive committee of the Grumman Corporation. The company merged into the Northrop Corporation in 1994. In the mid-1970s he developed an interest in the U.S. fusion energy program. He served on fusion advisory committees, including one for Congressman Mike McCormack that led to the unanimous passage by Congress of the Magnetic Fusion Energy Engineering Act of 1980. That Act, signed by President Jimmy Carter in October 1980, called for operation of a fusion electric power demonstration plant by the year 2000.

When Fusion Power Associates (FPA) was formed in August 1979, Grumman Corporation became a Charter Member and Joe served on the Board of Directors for many years. He became an Individual Affiliate of Fusion Power Associates, a relationship he maintained to the present time. He was the recipient of the FPA Distinguished Career Award in 1996.

Joseph Gleason Gavin Jr. was born on Sept. 18, 1920, in Somerville, Mass. As a boy, he was enthralled by the imaginary exploits of Buck Rogers and the real ones of Charles Lindbergh. He once traveled for hours to see "Lucky Lindy" land at a small airfield in Vermont. He earned undergraduate and master's degrees in aeronautical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he was captain of the varsity crew. During World War II, he was a lieutenant in the Navy involved in the early work on jet aircraft propulsion. He joined Grumman in 1946 as a design engineer working on Navy fighters.

Before and after his retirement in 1985, he advised the federal government on energy policy and space matters and pursued charitable interests.

He is survived by his wife of 67 years, the former Dorothy Grace Dunklee; his sons, Joseph III and Donald; and four grandchildren. A daughter, Tay Anne Gavin Erickson, died in 1998. In remarks to an M.I.T. alumni publication, Mr. Gavin, a downhill skier until the age of 86, described the appeal of his work: "There’s a certain exuberance that comes from being out there on the edge of technology, where things are not certain, where there is some risk, and where you make something work."

He believed in an aggressive, engineering-oriented approach to fusion development. He once commented, "If you plan to develop fusion in 20 years, it might still take you 30 years, but if you plan for 50 years, it will take you at least 50 years." His spirit will be sorely missed.