Paul C. Donnelly

Paul Charles Donnelly (March 28, 1923 – March 12, 2014) was an American guided missile pioneer and a senior NASA manager during the Apollo Moon landing program at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC). Responsible for the checkout of all Apollo launch vehicles and spacecraft, he was also involved in every U.S. manned launch from Alan Shepard's Mercury suborbital flight in 1961 through the tenth Space Shuttle mission (STS-41B) in 1984.

During World War II, Donnelly helped develop the U.S. Navy's Bat, the first "smart bomb" in the history of warfare, which his Navy squadron dropped on Japanese ships in Borneo's Balikpapan Harbor in 1945.

Nicknamed "Red" for his hair, Donnelly was stationed at the National Bureau of Standards in Washington, D.C., working in electronics for classified guided ordnance development, including the Bat, at the Navy's National Hydraulic Laboratory. On April 28, 1945, his VPB-109 Squadron of PB4Y-2 Privateer bombers, known as the Bat Squadron, dropped several SWOD-9 Bats, the first fully automatic (radar) guided bombs used in warfare, on Japanese shipping in Borneo's Balikpapan Harbor. The attack sank three ships and destroyed a large oil tank. Donnelly advanced to the rate of chief petty officer and was awarded nine Navy medals.

After the war, Donnelly became a Navy civil service employee. He was assigned to aircraft and ordnance testing at the Naval Air Ordnance Test Station at Chincoteague Island, Virginia and the Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Mayland,

As launch operations manager in KSC's Test Operations Office during Apollo, he was responsible for the checkout of all manned space vehicles, including boosters and spacecraft, from Apollo 7 in 1968 through the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project in 1975. By 1973, he became associate director, launch operations.

In 1976, Donnelly was project manager of Third Century America, a science and technology display at KSC commemorating the U.S. Bicentennial. In 1977, he led the NASA team conducting drop tests of the Space Shuttle Enterprise at the Dryden Flight Research Center, California.

Later years

In 1978, Donnelly retired from NASA as director, Space Transportation Systems Processing at KSC, and joined United Space Boosters, Inc. as vice president, Field Operations-Florida.

Family

Donnelly married Margaret Mary Boyle in 1944, a nurse who once treated Arthur Godfrey. Their daughters are Penelope Martin, Pamela Gene McLeod (Vincent), and Paula Bleakley (McLeod). They had nine grandchildren, Michele Foster, Jackie Nuvy, Christopher Martin, Justin, Nick and Blaise Bleakley; Conor, Kevin and Michael McLeod; and four great-grandchildren, Austin Nuvy, Amber Nuvy, Cody Nuvy, Caden Martin. He had 12 brothers and sisters.

NASA medals

Donnelly received six NASA medals, including two Distinguished Service Medals (1973, for his role in the Apollo program; and 1981, for STS-1), three Exceptional Achievement Medals (1969, for Apollo 8; 1969, for Apollo 11; and 1978, for shuttle Approach and Landing Tests), and an Outstanding Leadership Medal (1976, for Third Century America).

NASA Distinguished Service Medal with oak leaf cluster NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal with two oak leaf clusters NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal