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Wall of Honor Level:
Air and Space Sponsor

Honored by:
Ms. Judy Belko

Ira Wilson "Bill" Ramsey, Jr. was born May 10, 1923, in Daytona Beach, Florida. As a boy, in addition to the responsibilities of his two newspaper delivery routes -- which he maintained for six years -- Bill built model airplanes from the age of 13. He found his mentor in William T. Thomas, an English retiree who had graduated with aeronautical engineering honors at Oxford and, in New York, had founded the Consolidated-Vultee Aircraft Company. Bill began making hand-launched gliders, rubber-powered Stick and Wakefield type models, and gas-powered models to fly competitively around the state where model meets were held.

In 1940, he won the Florida State Championship by entering all events, and he placed highest in most categories. This led to an all-expenses-paid trip to the U.S. National Model Airplane Contest, in Chicago. Recognition from NACA followed, which led to an offer of employment as a modelmaker at the Langley Research Center, in Hampton, Virginia. Before taking the position, Bill studied at the University of Florida for one semester (1941). He began work at the NACA Apprentice School on February 5, 1942, at the age of 18. There he taught an engineering drawing course for two years. Also that year. Bill became a charter member of the BrainBusters Model Airplane Club. Four days after arriving in Hampton, Bill met Marjorie Luke at a Sunday night Young People's Fellowship meeting at St. John's Episcopal Church. Two and a half years later, they were married, on September 20, 1944.

Bill was engaged in wind tunnel design when the United States entered the war. He served in the U.S. Air Corps for 21 months in 1945 and 1946, as an aircraft mechanic in a Hurricane Hunter Squadron, in West Palm Beach, Florida. After the war, Bill's career resumed at NACA. He designed rocket-powered launch vehicles and researched payloads for launches at Wallops Island, Virginia. From 1958 through 1962, he was responsible for the design, manufacture, and launch support of the Trailblazer 1 & 2 hypervelocity reentry vehicle projects, both of which were cooperative efforts with the MIT / Lincoln Laboratory. These vehicles consisted of 12-TR1 and 16-TR2 launches. The booster-stage rockets were "spun up" to achieve an appropriate reentry angle (to an altitude of about 165 miles) for the measurement radar tracking of final-stage reentry velocities ranging from 20,000 to 32,000 feet per second.

From 1963 through 1967, Bill was responsible for monitoring the structural and mechanical design and testing of the Langley-managed Lunar Orbiter Spacecraft, under contract to Boeing, for five successful missions to photograph and map the surface of the moon in advance of astronaut landings. From 1968 through 1975 was the highlight of Bill's career. Using the experience gained from the Lunar Orbiter, he served in the same capacity for seven years working with Martin-Denver, in Colorado, on two phenomenally successful landings of the Viking Lander onto the Martian surface in 1975 and 1976 .

Bill's last assignment at Langley was in 1976, as Spacecraft Manager for the design and manufacture of the Long Duration Endurance Facility (LDEF) payload satellite, which was deployed into orbit (Mission 41c, April, 1984) and retrieved during January of 1990 (STS-32 Mission) by the Space Shuttle. Bill retired on May 10, 1978, and recalls his NACA/NASA career in this way: "I was most fortunate in my career to have had the opportunity to enjoy working with exceptionally brilliant, learned people. The assignments were always something interesting, exciting, and unexplored creative-type projects, from wind tunnels to rocket-powered vehicles, to orbital spacecraft and landers. Almost everyone was enthusiastic and focused on doing their very best and doing it correctly the first time.

"The wonderful thing about NACA/NASA was the leadership. Their ability to be instructive and helpful was key because, I believe, they thought of each task as a cooperative enterprise, which encouraged success. It was truly a joy to have participated in such successful, complex projects."

Bill and Marjorie Ramsey have a son, Dale Luke Ramsey, and a daughter, Judy Ramsey Belko.

Among his many accomplishments Bill is proud to have also organized the original chapter of the Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barbershop Quartet Singing in America (SPEBSQSA) for the Tidewater Peninsula area.

Bill was confirmed in the Episcopal Church at St. John's Church, in Hampton, Virginia, where he taught Sunday school, sang in the choir, was a lay reader, and served on the vestry. He later transferred to St. Stephen's Church, in Newport News, where he served in the same capacities. He and Marjorie enjoy much of their retirement in Leesburg, Florida.