Billy M. McCormac (1920–1999)

Abstract

Billy M. McCormac died on September 13, 1999, at age 79. His many friends and colleagues will remember him for the legendary International Institutes on Space Science and Aeronomy, which he organized between 1965 and 1975.Billy was born and raised in Zanesville, Ohio, and graduated from Ohio State University in 1943 in the midst of World War II. He joined the Army as a 2nd Lieutenant and served in Europe and Korea. As a career officer he was sent to graduate school at the University of Virginia, where he received his Ph.D. in nuclear physics in 1957. He held various scientific positions in the Army until his retirement as a Lieutenant Colonel in 1963. His last military position was Chief of Electromagnetics at the Defense Atomic Support Agency, where he was responsible for experiments measuring the effects of the high‐altitude nuclear weapon explosions in the Pacific.