Employee Info

UniqueID

N12445

Photo

First Name

William

Middle (1)

Campbell

Middle (2)

Last Name

Snoddy

Suffix

Biography

William C. Snoddy (Bill) was born in Russellville, Alabama, in 1937. He graduated from Haleyville (Alabama) High School in 1955 and attended the University of Alabama where he earned a Bachelor’s degree in Physics in 1958 and a Master’s degree in Physics in 1965. He also received a Master’s degree in Administrative Science from the University of Alabama in Huntsville in 1973. Bill’s professional career began in 1958 at Redstone Arsenal when he was hired as a summer employee physicist in the Research Projects Office of the Army Ballistic Missile Agency (ABMA), where preparations were ongoing for the launch of Explorer IV. His job assignment to independently calculate the predicted temperatures of the earlier Explorer satellites ultimately resulted in a corrected calculation made by Bill and several of his young fellow employees that changed the launch window timing for the successful Explorer IV. When offered a permanent job with the possibility of graduate study in the evening, he shelved plans for immediate return to graduate school and came onboard. He was a charter employee transferring with the initial group of employees to Marshall Space Flight Center in 1960 as a member of the Research Projects Division under Gerhard Heller. Bill became a leader in a small group of scientists researching various aspects of the space thermal environment that spacecraft might encounter and the development of coatings and surface material that could withstand these environments. In 1966, he was selected as Chief of the Thermal Environment Physics Branch and in 1969 he succeeded Gerhard Heller as Chief of the Space Thermophysics Division in the Space Sciences Laboratory, a division that became the Astronomy and Solid State Physics Division and, ultimately the Solar Terrestrial Division. In 1978 he was detailed to NASA Headquarters to serve as Manager of Advanced Programs for Solar Terrestrial Research and as Chairman of the Science and Applications Space Platform (SASP) study team. Upon his return to MFSC he served as Deputy Director of the Space Sciences Laboratory in 1980-1981 before his appointment in 1982 as Deputy Director of the Program Development Directorate which was responsible for conceptional and preliminary design of dozens of potential NASA programs, many of which were eventually approved for development and operation. In 1983 Bill was appointed to be the MSFC representative on a new NASA Commercialization Task Force, the work of which lead to Congress amending the NASA Space Act of 1958 to include requiring NASA “to seek and encourage to the maximum extent possible, the fullest commercial use of space”. Major initiatives included President Reagan’s approval of the International Space Station for commercial benefits and the creation of the NASA Office of Commercial Programs. He retired as Deputy Director of the Program Development Directorate in 1994. Following his retirement he has been active in the development of Huntsville Botanical Garden, serving two terms as President of the Board of Directors. He also manages the family timber farm and retreat in Double Springs, Alabama, and is active in the Covenant Presbyterian Church in Huntsville and the Huntsville Photographic Society.

Starting Year

1960

Last Year Served

1994

Honors

Herman Oberth Award from the Alabama Chapter of the AIAA as leader of a team that successfully predicted the structural nature of the lunar surface (1967); NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal (1974); NASA Exceptional Service Medal (1989)

Projects Worked

Explorer satellites, Pegasus, Apollo, Spacelab, Skylab, Science and Applications Space Platform, Hubble Space Telescope, Commercial Use of Space, International Space Station, and Human Missions to Mars.

Employer

NASA

Initial Source

Retirees

Panel #

IV

Line #

26

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