Dr. John L. McLucas Secretary of the Air Force 1920-2002. (in Memoriam)

Dr. John L. MeLucas who served as under secretary of the Air Force from 1969 to 1973, as secretary of the Air Force 1973 to 1975, and as administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration from 1975 to 1977, died on December 1, 2002 of respiratory failure at Mount Vernon Hospital in Alexandria, Virginia. McLucas, eighty-two, had suffered from poor health since undergoing heart surgery some ten years ago, but remained active as a writer, lecturer, and consultant. He was proud to be considered a "technocrat."

Born on August 22, 1920, in Fayetteville, North Carolina, McLucas was raised on a farm in South Carolina. After high school, he returned to North Carolina, where he graduated from Davidson College in 1941 with a BS degree in physics. In 1943 he earned an MS degree in physics from Tulane University and in 1950 a Ph.D. in physics with a minor in electrical engineering from Pennsylvania State University. During World War II, McLucas served in the U.S. Navy, including a two-year stint at sea in the Pacific theater as a radar and operations officer. He would often refer to his wartime work experience as being so secret that it had to be spelled backwards. When pressed about the delicate nature of his job, he would respond that it was something called radar.

In 1948, while still in graduate school, he began working part time for Haller, Raymond, and Brown (HRB) Inc., an electronics research firm in State College, …

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Publication information: Article title: Dr. John L. McLucas Secretary of the Air Force 1920-2002. (in Memoriam). Contributors: Not available. Journal title: Air Power History. Volume: 50. Issue: 1 Publication date: Spring 2003. Page number: 66+. © 2009 Air Force Historical Foundation. COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group.

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