Marcel J. Aucremanne was born in Clarksburg, West Virginia on June 27, 1923. He received his Bachelor's and Master's Degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of Notre Dame in Indiana. He served as an ensign in the U.S. Navy during World War II.

From 1948 to 1951, he worked at Sylvania Electric Products in Long Island, New York. He designed the Sylvania Model 500 TV and FM Sweep Generator, which was commercially marketed.

He moved to Maryland in 1951 to work at the Naval Ordnance Laboratory as an electronic design engineer. He received an award for several patented inventions, including an underwater acoustic device to help ships determine if mines were active.

In 1959, Mr. Aucremanne joined the Office of Space Science at NASA in Washington, D.C. His work included spacecraft telemetry systems and geophysics and astronomy programs. He was the Spacecraft Program Manager for Flight Systems and Program Manager for Explorers and Sounding Rockets. As Program Manager for Geophysical Observatories, he received a letter of commendation from Vice President Hubert Humphrey.

He was the study manager for the Large Space Telescope which became the Hubble Space Telescope. He made speeches at conferences around the world about the importance of putting a telescope above the earth's atmosphere to truly explore the beginnings of the universe. He spoke of Galileo and humankind's quest to understand, know, and explore.

Mr. Aucremanne retired from the federal service in 1980. He worked as the Head of the Forecast Analysis Section of Bendix Corporation from 1980 until 1986. This Section prepared Network Requirements and Support Forecasts for the Goddard Space Flight Center.