William Alison Anders (17 October 1933 – 7 June 2024) was a United States Air Force major general, electrical engineer, nuclear engineer, NASA astronaut, and businessman. In December 1968, he was a member of the crew of Apollo 8, the first three people to leave low Earth orbit and travel to the Moon. Along with fellow astronauts Frank Borman and Jim Lovell, he circled the Moon ten times, and broadcast live images and commentary back to Earth, including the Christmas Eve Genesis reading. During one of the mission's lunar orbits, he took the iconic Earthrise photograph. A 1955 graduate of the United States Naval Academy, Anders was commissioned a second lieutenant in the USAF the same year and became a fighter pilot flying Northrop F-89 Scorpions equipped with AIR-2A nuclear-tipped air-to-air rockets. In 1962, he earned a Master of Science degree in nuclear engineering at the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) of Air University, and was sent to the Air Force Weapons Laboratory to manage the technical aspects of the service's nuclear reactor programs. Anders was the executive secretary of the National Aeronautics and Space Council from 1969 to 1973, a commissioner of the United States Atomic Energy Commission from 1973 to 1975, and chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission from 1975 to 1976. He then became the United States Ambassador to Norway from 1976 to 1977. In September 1977, he joined General Electric (GE) as the vice president and general manager of its Nuclear Products Division and became the general manager of the GE Aircraft Equipment Division in 1980. He left GE to join Textron as executive vice president for aerospace, and two years later became senior executive vice president for operations. During his time in the Civil Service, he remained a USAF reserve officer and retained his active flight status. He retired from the reserve as a major general in 1988. In 1990, he became vice chairman of General Dynamics, and in 1991 its chairman and CEO. He retired as CEO in 1993 and as chairman in 1994. Anders died in a crash of his Beechcraft T-34 Mentor in June 2024 near the San Juan Islands.
Early life William Alison Anders was born in British Hong Kong on 17 October 1933, the son of Arthur Ferdinand Anders (1903–2000), a United States Navy lieutenant, and his wife, Muriel A. Anders (née Adams; 1911–1990). The family moved from Hong Kong to Annapolis, Maryland, where his father taught mathematics at the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School. After Annapolis, Anders's father received orders to billet in Nanjing, China. After the family moved there, the Second Sino-Japanese War erupted in 1937, followed by Japan invading China. In December of that year, his father was serving as the executive officer of the river gunboat USS Panay when he was wounded as the ship was attacked and sunk by Japanese bombers. As the Japanese began to advance toward Nanjing, Anders and his mother fled by taking a train to Guangzhou. From the porch of the Guangzhou hotel in which they stayed, they could see Japanese aircraft bombing ships on the Pearl River 200 yards (180 m) away. This was ominous since the river was their only means of escape. In addition to the threat of Japanese aircraft, the river was mined and there was the danger of being boarded by bandits. Foreigners were allocated special areas on the boat and separated from Chinese people by barbed wire. They eventually reached the Philippines, where they awaited news of his father. Arthur Anders was rescued by the British and sent to San Diego Naval Hospital to recover from his wounds and a staphylococcal infection. He was awarded the Purple Heart and the Navy Cross but was discharged from the Navy owing to his wounds. He was recalled to active duty during World War II. The family returned to the United States, where Anders was active in the Boy Scouts, achieving the organization's second-highest rank, Life Scout. As a teen, Anders attended St Martin's Academy and Grossmont High School in El Cajon, California. To improve his grades so that he could be accepted at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, Anders was sent to the Boyden School, a military academy prep school in downtown San Diego. He commuted to Boyden by bus from La Mesa, California. The school lay under the flight path into Lindbergh Field and aircraft such as the huge Convair B-36 Peacemaker would fly low over the school. He was fascinated with flight and built model aircraft. He graduated from Boyden in 1951.
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