Julian Scheer, who ran NASA's Office of Public Affairs during the heady years of the race to the moon, died Saturday of a heart attack. He was 75.
Scheer is credited with establishing a new level of openness in NASA's dealings with the press, insisting that space events be relayed to the media as they happened.
"He was certainly one of the pioneers in interpreting for us in the press the advances of the space program," television news veteran Walter Cronkite told SPACE.com on Tuesday.
Scheer resisted any pressure from his superiors at NASA to keep information secret, Cronkite said, adding that "Most of the time he was fighting the battle for us, from the inside."
In its early days, the nation's space program grew out of military activities and naturally inherited some of the military's penchant for secrecy.
For example, when Alan Shepard became the first American to fly in space, word of his selection for the flight was not made public until the morning of the launch. Scheer, who joined NASA in 1962, worked to change this approach. Today, space shuttle crews often are announced more than a year before they fly.
The late Brian Duff, whom Scheer apppointed to run public affairs activities at what is now called the Johnson Space Center in Houston, said in 1989 that Scheer "put a stamp on [the space program] that exits to this day. You can't give him enough credit for his belief in what we called the open program, and his ability to convince NASA management that this was in the best interests of the agency." In 1969, during preparations for the first moon landing, Apollo 11, Scheer fought to make the astronauts more available to the press, with the aim of letting the public see the three pilots as human beings. Scheer also had a role in planning ceremonial aspects of the landing, including the plaque that was left on the lunar lander.
Scheer fought the Nixon White House over the wording of the plaque, which concludes with the statement, "We came in peace for all mankind."
When one of Nixon's staff insisted that the words "under God" be added, Scheer resisted, arguing that NASA didn't want to offend any particular religion.
When the White House insisted, Scheer agreed to the change, knowing full well that it was too late to change the wording of the plaque, which was already attached to the spacecraft. Scheer later wrote, "It occurred to me that in the rush of events, no one would remember."
Scheer also helped direct coverage of the historic moonwalk, which was beamed to Earth on live television.
When Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon, uttering his famous declaration of "one giant leap for mankind," Scheer was impressed by the normally taciturn astronaut's turn of phrase.
After the Apollo 11 crew returned from their mission, Scheer had a chance to tell Armstrong how much he liked the quote, but in a tone of voice that clearly conveyed his surprise. Armstrong teased Scheer: "You're not the only one with a command of the English language, you know."
Scheer left NASA in 1971 for private industry, taking with him NASA's highest award, the Distinguished Service Medal, for his work on Apollo 11.
Scheer was born in Richmond, Virginia in 1926. He began his writing career at the age of 13, when his father died and he began working for a chain of weekly newspapers as an apprentice. After serving in the Merchant Marines during World War II, Scheer studied English at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, graduating in 1950. He went on to become a reporter for the Charlotte News.
Following his NASA years, Scheer became vice president for corporate affairs at the LTV Corporation, a conglomerate that owned firms in the steel, aerospace, food, transporation, and energy industries. At the time of his death Scheer and his wife, Suzanne, lived on their farm in Virginia.
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