Robert E. Shurney

A native of Dublin, Georgia, Dr. Robert Ellerston Shurney (1921-2007) served during World War II as a medic for the Allied invasion of northwest Europe, better known as Operation Overlord. After becoming a husband and father, he worked for seventeen years as a steam and electrical engineer at Riverside Hospital. During this time, Shurney completed a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics and Electrical Engineering from Tennessee State University.

In 1962, President John F. Kennedy's administration selected Shurney for a career at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) as one of the space program's first black aerospace engineers. During his long tenure at NASA, Shurney was lead engineer for the Apollo 15 Lunar Rover, creating the tires that provided good traction and traversal across the Moon's dusty surface. Shurney also contributed to the Saturn V rocket, the most powerful ever designed by the United States. The Saturn V's role was paramount to completing John F. Kennedy's goal of landing a man on the Moon and returning them safely to the Earth by the end of the 1960s. Shurney even contributed to the design of the Skylab waste control system, the first successful equipment to make going to the bathroom somewhat normal in space. By the end of his career, Shurney spent more time in zero-gravity conditions than any astronauts he had worked alongside.

In 1986, at the age of sixty-five years, Dr. Shurney received his doctorate in physics from Columbia Pacific University in California. Following twenty-six years with NASA, Dr. Robert E. Shurney retired in 1990. During his years in the space program, Dr. Shurney received awards consisting of the Lunar Flight Award, the Apollo Achievement Award, and the Skylab Achievement Award, along with an excess of certificates of appreciation and letters of commendation. Dr. Robert Ellerston Shurney passed away on November 25, 2007. Dr. Shurney has been honored with an exhibit at the Smithsonian Institute as one of the USA's foremost African-American space scientists.