William Anders

• 1. Childhood In The Crossfire

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  William Alison Anders was born in Hong Kong on the 17th of October 1933. His father served as a United States Navy lieutenant during the Second Sino-Japanese War. The family moved from Hong Kong to Annapolis, Maryland, where his father taught mathematics at the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School. They later relocated to Nanjing, China, just before Japan invaded the country in 1937. During that December, Japanese bombers attacked and sank the river gunboat where his father served as executive officer. Anders and his mother fled by train to Guangzhou while their father recovered from wounds in San Diego. From a hotel porch in Guangzhou, they watched Japanese aircraft bomb ships on the Pearl River. The river was mined and filled with bandits, making escape dangerous for foreigners separated by barbed wire.

• 2. The Lunar Orbit Decision

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  On the 22nd of December 1966, Anders was assigned to the third Apollo mission commanded by Frank Borman. Michael Collins originally held the command module pilot role until he suffered a cervical disc herniation requiring surgery in July 1968. Jim Lovell replaced Collins after the lunar module delivery fell behind schedule. More than one hundred significant defects were discovered when the lunar module arrived at Kennedy Space Center in June 1968. James McDivitt declined to fly the modified mission because his crew had prepared specifically to test the lunar module. Borman answered yes immediately when asked if he wanted to lead the new mission. Slayton swapped crews so that Borman, Lovell, and Anders flew Apollo 8 instead. Anders felt less enthusiastic about being the lunar module pilot without an actual lunar module present.

• 3. The Photograph That Changed Everything

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  During the fourth pass across the front of the moon, the crew witnessed Earthrise for the first time in human history. Anders called out in excitement as he took a black-and-white photograph while looking back toward Earth. He requested color film from Lovell and captured what would become known as the Earthrise image. Life magazine later selected this photo as one of its hundred photos of the century. The spacecraft splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on the 27th of December after a flight lasting 147 hours and 42 seconds. Time dilation caused the three astronauts to age approximately 300 microseconds more than people back on Earth. Anders reflected on how the photograph gained iconic status over time and helped humanity realize the need to protect their fragile planet.

• 4. Nuclear Policy And Regulation

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  President Richard Nixon nominated Anders to become executive secretary of the National Aeronautics and Space Council on the 16th of May 1969. The Senate confirmed him on the 19th of June, though he could not assume the position until August due to Apollo 11 backup duties. Anders worked closely with the Office of Science and Technology and became a personal advisor to OMB director Caspar Weinberger. He opposed development of the Space Shuttle and urged NASA to concentrate on developing the Skylab space station instead. Frustrated with the lack of influence, he recommended abolishing the council in 1972, which happened on the 30th of June 1973. President Gerald Ford appointed Anders as the first chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on the 19th of January 1975. The commission split its research responsibilities from regulatory ones, creating two separate organizations that year.

• 5. Corporate Turnaround Strategy

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  Anders joined General Dynamics as vice chairman in January 1990 before becoming chairman and CEO on the 1st of January 1991. The company lost $858 million between October and December 1990, marking the worst quarter in its history. Soon after taking over, General Dynamics lost $700 million in write-offs over the canceled A-12 Avenger II program. This cancellation directly caused about 3,500 employees to be laid off at the Fort Worth, Texas plant. On the 19th of June 1991, Anders announced moving corporate headquarters from St. Louis, Missouri, to Falls Church, Virginia. He sold assets worth nearly $3 billion including missile systems and Cessna subsidiaries. The military aircraft division was sold to Lockheed Corporation for $1.5 billion on the 9th of December 1992. These sales reduced employee numbers from 98,600 to around 35,000 while cutting debt from $430 million to $183 million.

• 6. Final Flight And Legacy

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  After retirement, Anders purchased a house in Anacortes, Washington, overlooking Puget Sound and Burrows Island. He later bought a second home in Point Loma, California because he disliked winters in northwest Washington. Anders established the William A. Anders Foundation to support educational and environmental issues. In 1996, he founded the Heritage Flight Museum in Bellingham, Washington, which moved to Skagit Regional Airport in Burlington. The museum initially ran with his family members holding various leadership positions until 2008. Anders died on the 7th of June 2024 at age 90 while flying his vintage T-34 registered to him. Witnesses reported the plane nosediving into a small channel between Jones Island and Orcas Island before catching fire and sinking. Beginning with his Air Force career, Anders had logged over 8,000 flight hours before this final accident.