Does anyone know the individual in this photograph? A friend forwarded this photograph to me asking if I could identify him. There are a couple of clues worth considering. The first is the date on the image, 1964, and the balloons in the the photo in the background are of an Echo II inflation test as depicted here. I think, but cannot verify, that the “G” in the image number is for NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. Project oversight for NASA’s Echo program did take place at Goddard. Some folks think it is a photo of a high ranking NASA official—that makes sense because it is clearly a studio shot—but who could it be? Any ideas?
I have had a couple of people suggest that this gentleman may be Clarence R. “John” Gates. He was a 1975 Thurlow Award recipient, and he worked on a variety of mid-1960s NASA-JPL projects. Any other thoughts?
There is a picture of Clarence R. “John” Gates at http://crgates.org/Site/Home.html, and he clearly is not the same man.
Thanks much for this information.