Memorial Tributes Volume 14 (2011) / Chapter Skim
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WILLIAM HAYWARD PICKERING
WILLIAM HAYWARD PICKERING
Pages 266-277
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From page 267... ...
He lived a life that was nearly beyond belief, as William Pickering's love for science, mathematics, and technology launched him on a career that the young Pickering could only begin to imagine: a leading role in opening the Space Age, the guiding force behind the launch of the first U.S. satellite and the exploration of distant planets.
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From page 268... ...
Millikan on the absorption properties of cosmic rays and investigated countermeasures for Japanese balloon warfare techniques for the Army Air Corps. Because of his experience in designing telemetering devices, Pickering was invited to join JPL in 1944; in 1947 his frequency modulation telemetry system for transmitting data from rockets was adopted as the federal standard.
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From page 269... ...
Navy's favored Vanguard rocket exploded on lift-off, President Dwight D Eisenhower directed JPL and the Army Ballistic Missile Agency to place the first American satellite into orbit.
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From page 270... ...
He worried that those who did the actual work weren't getting enough credit; after that, he started stepping aside at the news conferences and letting others tell the story." In December 1958, JPL was transferred to the newly created NASA; soon thereafter, NASA leaders assigned responsibility for robotic exploration of the Moon and planets to JPL. Pickering said in 1993 that "JPL argued for, and received, a charter to develop the deep space missions.
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From page 271... ...
, and the NAE Committee on Public Engineering Policy and its Panel on Electronics Engineering. He was a member of the NAE 1966 Autumn Meeting Program Committee on engineering education and the NAE Nominating Committee.
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From page 272... ...
Interested in promoting the influence of American technology in Saudia Arabia, Pickering returned to California in 1978 and established the Pickering Research Corporation, a nonprofit company that provided research and development support to the Kingdom of Saudia Arabia; consultation on reliability, safety, and failure reporting to the nonprofit Electric Power Research Institute; and remote-sensing computer-aided image processing systems in the United States and at the Beijing Research Institute, China. In 1983, Pickering, interested in alternative fuels, formed Lignetics, Inc., to manufacture wood pellets from wood waste for use in home heating.
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From page 273... ...
William Hayward Pickering was extensively honored throughout his lifetime, from the 1959 U.S. Army's Distinguished Civilian Service Decoration, to the 1966 Order of Merit of the Republic of Italy, to the 1993 inaugural François-Xavier Bagnoud Aerospace Prize for his contribution to space science, and the 2004 unveiling of the Rutherford–Pickering memorial in Havelock, New Zealand.
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From page 274... ...
Daughter Beth, recalls the ceremony "when Wayne, our children, and I were driven right to the White House door to attend the presentation." Also in 1976, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II of England invested Pickering as Honorary Knight Commander of the Civil Division of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in recognition of his services to science; in 2003, the government of New Zealand conferred its highest national honor, the Order of New Zealand, on Sir William. Emperor Akihito presented Pickering with the prestigious 1994 Japan Prize for Aerospace Technologies.
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From page 275... ...
Pickering's relationship with the political administration was often strained, and he daily faced the demanding expectations of the American military and the public pressure to "beat" the Soviet Union. Nevertheless, he successfully guided a diverse team of scientists and engineers; and he exploited every opportunity to encourage the engineering, scientific, political, civil, and social communities to unite in common purpose.
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From page 276... ...
‘In his personal life as in his professional life in the world of space science and technology,' they said, ‘William Pickering had set standards of excellence that would be an example for all that would surely follow.'" True to the education that had inspired him, William Hayward Pickering had accepted the light of knowledge and passed it on -- and so it is that he continues to inspire the world to reach for the stars.
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