Identity area
Type of entity
Authorized form of name
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Lundquist, C. A. (Charles A.)
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Description area
Dates of existence
History
Charles A. Lundquist was born on March 26, 1928, in Webster, South Dakota. He graduated early from high school in 1945 intending to enlist in the military but instead enrolled at South Dakota State University, earning a Bachelor of Science in engineering physics. He later received a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Kansas in 1953, where he also met and married Patricia Richardson in 1951.
Lundquist began his career as an assistant professor of engineering at Pennsylvania State University, conducting research on homing torpedoes in the university’s Ordnance Research Laboratory. Drafted into the U.S. Army in 1954, he completed basic training at Fort Bliss and was assigned to Redstone Arsenal, working in the Guided Missile Development Division while also teaching at Athens College. After completing his service, he became Chief of Physics and Astrophysics at the Army Ballistic Missile Agency.
In 1960, he joined NASA’s newly formed Marshall Space Flight Center, contributing to early spaceflight projects including Explorer 1 under the leadership of Wernher von Braun. Two years later, Lundquist became assistant director of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory’s Scientific Research Project in Cambridge, Massachusetts, while also serving on NASA’s lunar exploration planning group—a position he attributed to the influence of astronomer Fred Lawrence Whipple.
Lundquist returned to the Marshall Space Flight Center in 1973 to serve as Director of the Space Sciences Laboratory following the death of Gerhard B. Heller. There, he played a key role in the Skylab and Space Shuttle programs until his retirement in 1981.
Following his NASA career, Lundquist joined the University of Alabama in Huntsville as Associate Vice President for Research and Director of the Interactive Projects Office. He conducted extensive oral history interviews with early American and German rocket scientists, culminating in the publication of his book Transplanted Rocket Pioneers. Although he officially retired in 2000, he continued his research and writing until his death in 2017.