Dr. Glynn S. Lunney Honored by Scranton Prep
“Houston, we have a problem.”
The infamous words from the flight crew of the ill-fated Apollo 13 caused worry and concern for the world watching on television in April 1970. For Glynn Lunney and his NASA mission control team, the words brought an unprecedented life and death challenge for the space program.
Dr. Glynn Lunney, a 1953 graduate of Scranton Prep, will be honored by the Scranton Prep Alumni Board of Governors as this year’s recipient of the prestigious Rev. T. Donald Rinfret, S.J. Distinguished Alumnus Award for his dedicated service to the United States space program.
Dr. Lunney was an integral part of NASA’s manned space program for over forty years. He served as a flight director for Mercury and Gemini space missions, as well as Apollo 7, 8, and 10. Apollo 8 was the first space mission to take humans to the moon and back and the gate opener to landing on the moon and the catalyst for future space exploration.
During the Apollo 13 crisis, Dr. Lunney played a key role as black team flight director working under extreme pressure to establish a detailed plan for the safe return of the astronauts. This ill-fated voyage was immortalized in the movie, Apollo 13, released in 1995. Ken Mattingly, the astronaut who had been bumped from the mission due to exposure to German measles, called Lunney’s performance “the most magnificent display of personal leadership that I’ve ever seen.”
Following the successful splashdown of the spacecraft, Dr. Lunney and his fellow flight directors accepted the Presidential Medal of Freedom on behalf of the Apollo 13 operations team.
After his graduation from Scranton Prep, Glynn Lunney attended the University of Scranton for two years and then transferred to the University of Detroit, where he enrolled in the cooperative training program run by the Lewis Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio. The center was a part of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), a U.S. federal agency funded to promote aeronautical research. In 1958, he graduated from college with a bachelor of science degree in aeronautical engineering and remained with NACA as a researcher in aerospace dynamics at the Lewis Research Center.
When President Dwight Eisenhower signed into existence the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in 1959, NACA was incorporated as part of the newly created space program. During his early career, Glynn Lunney became a protégé of Chris Kraft, NASA’a first flight director, forming a relationship that would last over fifty years. Kraft praised Lunney as “a true hero of the space age …one of the outstanding contributors to the exploration of space for four decades.”
Glynn Lunney is a fellow of the American Astronautical Society and of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. In 1971, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Scranton. He has received numerous awards from NASA including three Group Achievement Awards, two Exceptional Service Medals, and three Distinguished Service Medals.
Dr. Lunney and Marilyn, his wife of fifty years, reside in Houston, Texas. They are the parents of four children and have twelve grandchildren.
The Rinfret Award presentation will be made to Dr. Lunney at the Prep Alumni Weekend Mass on Sunday, October 4th in the St. Robert Bellarmine Theatre at 10:00 AM. A brunch in his honor will immediately follow in the St. Francis Xavier Student Dining Hall.
If you would like to attend the Prep Alumni Weekend Mass and Brunch, contact the Prep Development Office at 941-7743. The cost of the brunch is $12.00.