Christopher C. Kraft, Jr.

Christopher Columbus Chris Kraft Jr. is a retired NASA engineer and manager who was instrumental in establishing the agencys Mission Control operation. Following his graduation from Virginia Tech in 1944, Kraft was hired by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics , the predecessor organization to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration . He worked for over a decade in aeronautical research before being asked in 1958 to join the Space Task Group, a small team entrusted with the responsibility of putting Americas first man in space. Assigned to the flight operations division, Kraft became NASAs first flight director. He was on duty during such historic missions as Americas first human spaceflight, first human orbital flight, and first spacewalk.

Born in Phoebus, Virginia, on February 28, 1924, Kraft was named after his father, Christopher Columbus Kraft, who was born in New York City in 1892 near the newly renamed Columbus Circle. Krafts father, the son of Bavarian immigrants , had found his name an embarrassment, but passed it along to his son nonetheless. In later years, Kraftas well as other commentatorswould consider it peculiarly appropriate. Kraft commented in his autobiography that, with the choice of his name, some of my lifes direction was settled from the start.

Source: Wikipedia