The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
‘A true American hero’
Marine, astronaut, senator, executive dies in Ohio at 95.
John Glenn, a freckle-faced son of Ohio who was hailed as a national hero and a symbol of the Space Age as the first American to orbit the Earth, then became a national political figure for 24 years in the Senate, died on Thursday in Columbus, Ohio. He was 95.
His death was announced on Twitter by Ohio State University in Columbus. Glenn had recently been hospitalized at the James Cancer Center at Ohio State, though university officials said at the time that admission there did not necessarily mean he had cancer. He had heart-valve replacement surgery in 2014 and a stroke around that time.
In just five hours on Feb. 20, 1962, Glenn joined a select roster of Americans whose feats have seized the country’s imagination and come to embody a moment in its history, figures like Lewis and Clark, the Wright brothers and Charles Lindbergh.
It was an anxious nation that watched and listened that morning, as Glenn, 40, a Marine Corps test pilot and one of the seven original American astronauts, climbed into Friendship 7, the tiny Mercury capsule atop an Atlas rocket at Cape Canaveral
in Florida.
It was a short flight, just three orbits. But when Glenn was safely back, flashing the world a triumphant grin, doubts were replaced by a broad, new faith that the United States could indeed hold its own against the Soviet Union in the Cold War and might someday prevail.
Glenn was reluctant to talk about himself as a hero.
“I figure I’m the same person who grew up in New Concord, Ohio, and went off through the years to participate in a lot of events of importance,” he said in an interview years later.
Glenn did not return to space for a long time. President John F. Kennedy thought him too valuable as a hero to risk losing in an accident. So Glenn resigned from the astronaut corps in 1964, became an executive in private industry and entered politics, serving four full terms as a Democratic senator from Ohio and in 1984 running unsuccessfully for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Finally, 36 years after his Mercury flight, in the last months of his final Senate term, he got his wish for a return to orbit. Despite some criticism that his presence on the mission was a political payoff, a waste of money and of doubtful scientific merit, the hero of yesteryear brought out the crowds again, cheering out of nostalgia and enduring respect as he was launched aboard the space shuttle Discovery on Oct. 29, 1998. At 77, he became the oldest person to go into space.
In retirement from the Senate, Glenn lived with his wife of 73 years, Anna (he always called her Annie), in a suburb of Washington in addition to Columbus. Ohio State University is the repository of papers from his career.
“We are saddened by the loss of Sen. John Glenn, the first American to orbit Earth. A true American hero,” NASA tweeted.
“John always had the right stuff,” President Barack Obama said in a statement Thursday, “inspiring generations of scientists, engineers and astronauts who will take us to Mars and beyond — not just to visit, but to stay.”
President-elect Donald Trump, who made a pre-arranged visit to Columbus on Thursday, also paid his respects.
“Today we lost a great pioneer of air and space in John Glenn,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “He was a hero and inspired generations of future explorers. He will be missed.”
John Herschel Glenn Jr. was born on July 18, 1921, in Cambridge, Ohio, the only son of a railroad conductor who also owned a plumbing business, and the former Clara Sproat. A few years later, the Glenns moved to New Concord, a small town in southeastern Ohio.
“It was small but had a lot of patriotic feeling and parades on all the national holidays,” Glenn once said. “Wanting to do something for the country was just natural, growing up in a place like New Concord.”
Glenn began his journey to fame in World War II. In 1939, he enrolled at Muskingum College in his hometown to study chemistry, but he took flying lessons on the side. Shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, he signed up for the Naval Aviation cadet program and after pilot training opted to join the Marines. As a fighter pilot, he flew 59 combat missions in the Pacific, earning two Distinguished Flying Crosses and other decorations. Glenn saw more action in the Korean War, flying 90 combat missions and winning more medals.
Then, in 1959, newly promoted to lieutenant colonel, he heeded a call for test pilots to apply to be astronauts for the fledgling NASA. He and six other pilots were selected in April of that year.
The 1962 space mission came after two months of one postponement after another, sometimes for mechanical problems, often for bad weather. Once Glenn had to wait six hours, fully suited, in the cramped Friendship 7 capsule before officials called off the launch. But he projected confidence. “You fear the least what you know the most about,” he said at the time.
At the end of the first orbit, an automatic control mechanism failed, and Glenn took over manual control. He would see three sunsets in a brief time. He puzzled for a while about “fireflies” outside his window. NASA later determined that it was his urine and sweat, which was being dumped overboard and turned to frozen crystals glowing in sunlight.
A warning light signaled that the capsule heat shield, designed to protect it in the fiery descent back to Earth, had come loose and might come off during re-entry. The signal was erroneous, but no one could be sure. Ground controllers ordered that a retrorocket unit attached under the heat shield by metal straps not be jettisoned after firing in order to give added protection and reduce the risk of premature detachment of the heat shield.
In the flush of fame, Glenn toured the country publicizing the space program, visiting aerospace plants and waving to cheering crowds and signing autographs. But he always had his eye on another flight into space.
One night in December 1962, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy invited the Glenns to dinner at his home in McLean, Va. In the course of the evening, Kennedy suggested that Glenn run for public office. With the backing of a powerful Kennedy, he might have a good chance at a Senate seat from Ohio in the 1964 election.
Glenn eventually took the advice, but had to quit the race after being seriously injured in a bathroom fall. He spent the next decade working as an executive of the Royal Crown Cola Co.
In 1970, Glenn ran again for the Senate, but lost in the Democratic primary to Howard M. Metzenbaum. Four years later, Glenn won the primary and breezed to victory in the general election, beginning a 24-year career in the Senate. Over the years, Glenn earned the respect of Senate colleagues as an upright, candid and diligent legislator. Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla., described Glenn as a “workhorse” who was especially well-informed on defense issues.
As a senator, Glenn developed an expertise in weapons systems, nuclear proliferation issues and most legislation related to technology and bureaucratic reform. He generally took moderate positions on most issues, though in his last two terms his voting record became more liberal.
The senator drew admiring audiences in his run for the 1984 Democratic presidential nomination, but his wooden speaking style and lack of a cogent campaign message were blamed for his poor showing at the polls.
The one blemish on Glenn’s squeaky-clean polit- ical reputation came in the 1980s, when he was one of five senators present at a meeting with federal regulators concerning accusations of savings and loan association fraud against Charles H. Keating Jr., a former Ohioan. The meeting smacked of impropriety and political pressure. Because Glenn had no further contact with Keating, who eventually was sent to prison, the Senate decided that he did nothing deserving discipline.
Honors continued to come his way: the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Congressional Gold Medal and election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Glenn is survived by his wife; two children, Carolyn Ann of St. Paul, Minn. and John David of Berkeley, Calif.; and two grandsons, Daniel and Zach.