Naval Officer (1866–1995)

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Combs, Osie V., Jr.  

Glenn Allen Knoblock

Article

Publication History:

Published in print:
15 March 2013
Published online:
31 May 2013

U.S. naval officer and naval engineer, was born in Texas. Nothing is known of his parents, nor even his specific place and date of birth. He graduated from Texas City High School in 1967, then attended Prairie View A&M University from 1967 to 1971, graduating with a BA in Electrical Engineering. One of his school's most distinguished graduates, Combs was named Outstanding Student Engineer of the Year by the Texas Society of Professional Engineers and Outstanding Senior Engineer while at Prairie View.

Combs also joined the Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps (NROTC), serving with the future navy vice admiral David Brewer while at Prairie View. Upon completing his undergraduate degree, Combs served for four years in the navy, joining the crew of the aircraft carrier Coral Sea as assistant boilers officer prior to its deployment to Vietnam in November 1971 Two weeks after returning to Texas from ...

Article

Curbeam, Robert L., Jr.  

Adam Rosen

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
31 May 2018

astronaut and United States Navy Captain, was born in Baltimore, Maryland, one of four children of Yvonne Evans and Robert Lee Curbeam, a longtime employee of the Western Electric Company, an electrical engineering corporation later absorbed into Lucent Technologies. In addition to accruing over 3,000 flight hours (including 900 in space) in multiple aircraft and spacecraft, as of 2012, Curbeam held the record for most spacewalks (four) in a single shuttle mission, which he completed as a crew member of the Discovery shuttle in December 2006.

Curbeam was raised in the Baltimore area, and graduated from Woodlawn High School in suburban Baltimore County in 1980. He matriculated at the United States Naval Academy, and earned a degree in aerospace engineering in 1984 Immediately after college graduation Curbeam reported to Naval Flight Officer training for instruction In contrast to Naval Aviators NFOs do not actually fly ...

Article

Gourdine, Meredith C.  

Jeffrey R. Yost

Article

Publication History:

Published in print:
15 March 2013
Published online:
31 May 2013

physicist and engineer, was born in Newark, New Jersey. He was one of four children. His father worked at various maintenance and painting jobs and his mother was a teletype operator. After classes at Brooklyn Technical High School, Gourdine often worked long hours with his father on cleaning and painting jobs. This experience led him to focus on his studies as well as athletics in hopes of an easier life.

His talent in swimming earned him a scholarship offer from the University of Michigan but he instead chose to attend Cornell University He paid his own tuition early in his college career working for a radio and telegraph firm prior to receiving a scholarship for track and field Gourdine competed in sprints low hurdles and the long jump The six foot tall 175 pound Gourdine earned the nickname Flash as a result of both his speed and his favorite ...

Article

Organ, Claude H., Jr.  

Robert Fikes

Article

Publication History:

Published in print:
15 March 2013
Published online:
31 May 2013

surgeon and medical educator, was born Claude Harold Organ Jr. in Marshall, Texas, the second of three children born to Claude Harold Organ Sr., a postal worker, and Ottolena Pemberton, a schoolteacher. At age sixteen Claude Jr. graduated as valedictorian from Terrell High School in Denison, Texas, and followed his sister to Xavier University, a historically black Catholic school in New Orleans, from which he graduated cum laude in 1948.

Inspired by the achievements of the celebrated physician-inventor Charles Richard Drew and encouraged by two maternal uncles Organ chose to study medicine He was not allowed to enroll at the University of Texas because of his race His application to Creighton University in Omaha Nebraska however was accepted and he became only the second African American to be admitted into its medical school A focused hard driven student with a gift for public speaking Organ ...

Article

Ross, William Alexander Jackson  

Glenn Allen Knoblock

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
31 May 2016

physician and U.S. Navy officer was born in Detroit, Michigan, the youngest child of Turner W. Ross, who was employed as a mail carrier, and homemaker Julia (Jackson) Ross. Both of Ross's parents were from the South originally, with Turner Ross having earned a college degree in English at Lane College, a historically black college in Jackson, Tennessee, while his mother, Julia, attended Clark University in Atlanta and worked as a schoolteacher prior to the birth of her children. From an early age Ross, who was usually called “Jackson” by his friends and family, was interested in becoming a doctor, a goal that became heightened after his sister, Lula Marie Ross, entered the University of Michigan in 1949; she graduated with a bachelor of science degree in nursing in 1953 one of the few African American women at the university at this time to achieve this feat ...