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Wall of Honor Level:
Air and Space Leader

Honored by:
Carroll Keller

Samuel Keller demonstrated a lifelong love of and dedication to flight and space exploration. Sam graduated from the University of Maryland in 1955 with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering. He served in the United States Air Force as a 1st lieutenant flying C-97s in the Korean War.

Sam’s Federal Government career spanned 40 years including 34 at NASA. Beginning in 1960, he served as Director of Administration and Management for Goddard Space Flight Center, Deputy Associate Administrator for the Office of Space Science and Applications, Associate Deputy Administrator – NASA Headquarters, and Associate Administrator for Russian Programs. He concentrated on the development of major space flight systems including the Hubble Space Telescope, Galileo, Magellan, Gamma Ray Observatory and Cosmic Background Explorer. After Sam’s retirement in 1994, he returned to the University of Maryland as the Executive Director of the East-West Space Science Center.