Existing comment:
The National Geographic Society on its seventy-fifth anniversary dedicates this building to man's eternal quest for knowledge of earth, sea, and space.
Note that the board of trustees include some interesting people:
Robert B. Anderson
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Robert Bernard Anderson (June 4, 1910 – August 14, 1989) was an American administrator and businessman. He served as the Secretary of the Navy between February 1953 and March 1954. He also served as the Secretary of the Treasury from 1957 until 1961, and was one of President Eisenhower's closest confidants.
Curtis LeMay
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Curtis Emerson LeMay (November 15, 1906 – October 1, 1990) was a general in the United States Air Force and the vice presidential running mate of American Independent Party presidential candidate George Wallace in 1968.
Curtis LeMay is credited with designing and implementing an effective, but also controversial, systematic strategic bombing campaign in the Pacific theater of World War II. During the war, he was known for planning and executing a massive bombing campaign against cities in Japan and a crippling minelaying campaign in Japan's internal waterways. After the war, he initiated the Berlin airlift, then reorganized the Strategic Air Command (SAC) into an effective instrument of nuclear war. He served as Chief of Staff of the U.S. Air Force from 1961 until his retirement in 1965.
Juan Trippe
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Juan Terry Trippe (June 27, 1899 – April 3, 1981) was an American airline entrepreneur and pioneer, and the founder of Pan American World Airways, one of the world's most prominent airlines of the twentieth century.
James H. Wakelin, Jr.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
James Henry Wakelin, Jr. (1911–1990) was a United States physicist, oceanographer, and businessman who served as Assistant Secretary of the Navy (Research and Development) from 1959 to 1964.
Alexander Wetmore
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Frank Alexander Wetmore (June 18, 1886 – December 7, 1978) was an American ornithologist and avian paleontologist. He was the sixth Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution.
Conrad L. Wirth
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Conrad Louis Wirth (December 1, 1899 – July 25, 1993) was an American landscape architect, conservationist and park service administrator. He served as the director of the National Park Service between 1951 and 1964.
Leonard Carmichael
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Leonard Carmichael (November 9, 1898 – September 16, 1973) was a American educator and psychologist. In addition, he became the seventh secretary of the Smithsonian Institution in 1953.
Hugh Latimer Dryden
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Hugh Latimer Dryden (July 2, 1898 – December 2, 1965) was an American aeronautical scientist and civil servant. He served as NASA Deputy Administrator from August 19, 1958 until his death.
Crawford Greenewalt
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Crawford Hallock Greenewalt (August 16, 1902 – September 28, 1993) was an American chemical engineer who served as president of the DuPont Company from 1948 to 1962 and as board chairman from 1962 to 1967.
Emory S. Land
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Vice Admiral Emory Scott Land (January 8, 1879 – November 27, 1971) was an officer in the United States Navy, noted for his contributions to naval architecture, particularly in submarine design. Notable assignments included serving as Chief of the Navy's Bureau of Construction and Repair during the 1930s, and as Chairman of the U.S. Maritime Commission during World War II.
Laurance Rockefeller
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Laurance Spelman Rockefeller (May 26, 1910 – July 11, 2004) was an American philanthropist, businessman, financier, and major conservationist. He was a prominent third-generation member of the Rockefeller family, being the fourth child of John Davison Rockefeller, Jr. and Abigail Greene "Abby" Aldrich. His siblings were Abby, John III, Nelson, Winthrop, and David.
Earl Warren
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Earl Warren (March 19, 1891 – July 9, 1974) was an American jurist and politician, who served as the 30th Governor of California (1943–1953) and later the 14th Chief Justice of the United States (1953–1969).
He is best known for the decisions of the Warren Court, which ended school segregation and transformed many areas of American law, especially regarding the rights of the accused, ending public school-sponsored prayers, and requiring "one man-one vote" rules of apportionment of Congressional districts. He made the Supreme Court a power center on a more even basis with Congress and the Presidency, especially through four landmark decisions: Brown v. Board of Education (1954), Gideon v. Wainwright (1963), Reynolds v. Sims (1964), and Miranda v. Arizona (1966).
Warren is one of only two people to be elected Governor of California three times, the other being Jerry Brown. Before holding these positions, he was the District Attorney for Alameda County, California, and the Attorney General of California.
Warren was also the nominee for Vice President of the Republican Party in 1948, and he chaired the Warren Commission, which was formed to investigate the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy. |