Education: B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, Purdue University, 1950

Spaceflights: Command pilot, Mercury-Redstone 4 (1961) and Gemini 3 (1965)

Was pilot for Mercury-Redstone 4 (Liberty Bell 7), a suborbital flight, command pilot for Gemini 3, backup command pilot for Gemini 6, and had been selected as commander of the first Apollo flight at the time of his death on January 27, 1967 in the Apollo-1 fire at Cape Kennedy.