Samuel E. Massenberg, Sr.
Dr. Samuel E. Massenberg, Sr. (1927-2014) was an educator who created the highly successful Langley Aerospace Research Summer Scholars (LARSS), an internship program that has helped train and inspire thousands of students interested in mathematics, science, technology and engineering careers. His leadership also helped NASA reach millions more students through innovative distance learning television programs.
Massenberg was born in Detroit, Michigan. He left his law studies at Wayne State University in 1950 to train as a pilot in the U.S. Air Force. He fought in the Korean War and spent eight months in a prisoner of war camp in North Korea, before becoming a bomber pilot in the Strategic Air Command, eventually rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel. After the war he earned a bachelor’s degree at Ohio State University in 1957, taught at North Carolina A&T University, then went on to receive a doctorate from Virginia Tech. Before coming to NASA Langley in 1980, Massenberg was the dean of men at Hampton University.
At Langley, Director of Education Massenberg envisioned internships that could offer students real world experience and introduce them to career opportunities at NASA and the aerospace industry while helping NASA Langley scientist and engineer mentors with research. He created the LARSS program that began with a class of 15 in 1986 and grew to include more than 250 interns annually until it merged with a NASA-wide internship effort in 2017. The Langley internship program was listed in Princeton Review’s “America’s Top 100 Internships” for three straight years and was cited in the Congressional Record.
In the early 1990s, Massenberg also served as the director of the NASA Minority University Research and Education Division and created the NASA University Research Centers to promote historically black colleges and universities and to train more minorities and faculty in science, technology and research.
Massenberg saw the value in trying to reach even more students, so he moved NASA into what were then newer educational opportunities – distance learning programs, with aerospace-related content, broadcast to more than 15 million kindergarten-through-high school classroom students. One of them, NASA CONNECT, was twice recognized as “best in the USA” by the U.S. Distance Learning Association. Every Langley distance learning program, including NASA CONNECT, NASA SCI Files, Kids Science News Network, NASA Live, and Destination Tomorrow received a NASA Group Achievement Award after airing on 250 public broadcast stations. The programs have also garnered 12 Emmy Awards for excellence in television.
Massenberg won numerous awards for his work in education. In 2002 NASA Langley nominated him for the prestigious “Service to America” medal. He was a finalist as one of the top 20 federal employees in the nation. Massenberg also received the NASA Exceptional Service Medal in 1988, the NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal in 2000 and the Federal Distinguished Executive Award in 2002. He retired from NASA Langley in 2006.