June 15, 1998

Pam Alloway
Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX
(Phone: 281/483-5111)

Release: J98-20

JSC Director George Abbey to Receive Gilruth Award

JSC Director George W.S. Abbey has been named the 1998 winner of the Robert R. Gilruth Award in recognition of his accomplishments and dedication to human spaceflight. He will be recognized at a June 18 luncheon.

The North Galveston County Chamber of Commerce annually presents the Gilruth award to an individual who has distinguished himself or herself in the areas of flight operations management, engineering, science, and dedication to the advanced of human spaceflight. Recipients are recognized for their long-term leadership, management, and accomplishment within an area of spaceflight.

Abbey, who has been the director of JSC since January 1996, was a pilot in the U.S. Air Force before being detailed to JSC in April 1967. In January 1967 he became technical assistant to the manager in the Apollo Spacecraft Program, the first of several NASA management positions.

Abbey served as Director of Flight Operations and Director of the Flight Crew Operations organization at JSC before his March 1988 appointment as Deputy Associate Administrator for Space Flight at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C. In July 1990, Abbey was appointed Deputy for Operations for the Synthesis Group in which he and others defined technologies and strategies to return to the Moon and land on Mars. In July 1991 he was appointed Senior Director for Civil Space Policy on the National Space Council in the Executive Office of the President. He served in this capacity until April 1992, when he was appointed as Special Assistant to the Administrator of NASA.

In January 1994, Abbey was appointed Deputy Director of JSC. He was named Acting Director of the center in August 1994, and selected as Director of JSC in January 1996.

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