Lt. Gen. Charles H. Terhune Jr. (USAF ret.) will retire Dec. 31, 1983, as deputy director of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Robert J. Parks, associate director, has been named to replace General Terhune.
Terhune retired from the Air Force in 1969 as lieutenant general. He joined JPL in July 1971. As deputy director, he has functioned as general manager of JPL, responsible for the day-to-day management of the Laboratory's resources and the direction and coordination of its technical, administrative and service activities.
General Terhune received the NASA Distinguished Service Medal from NASA Administrator James M. Beggs in October 1982.
Terhune's last military assignment was vice commander of the Air Force Systems Command at Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland, which is responsible for Air Force research, development, procurement and production of advanced aerospace technology, its application to operational systems and procurement of aircraft and aerospace vehicles.
General Terhune is native of Dayton, Ohio. He was graduated from Purdue University in 1938 with degree in mechanical engineering. He also received professional degree in aeronautical engineering from Caltech in 1941.
General Terhune is married and has two daughters, son and seven grandchildren. He lives in La Canada.
Parks joined the Laboratory in April 1947 and has been closely associated with the planetary exploration program. He was responsible for such projects as Mariner 2, which flew past Venus in December 1962; Rangers 7, 8 and 9, which produced the first close-up photos of the Moon; and Mariner 4, the first spacecraft to photograph Mars, in July 1965.
He also had responsibility for the Surveyor lunar-lander series of spacecraft, Mariner 5 to Venus in 1967, Mariner 6 and 7 to Mars in 1969, Mariner 9 to Mars in 1971, Mariner 10 to Venus and Mercury, and the Voyager project to Jupiter and Saturn.
Before becoming associate director, Parks was assistant laboratory director for flight projects. He was JPL's planetary program director before that appointment, and established the early JPL role in the NASA/JPL mission of unmanned exploration of the Moon and planets.
Before he became planetary program director, Parks was chief of the Laboratory's Guidance Division and program director for research and development on the U.S. Army's Sergeant missile. He also worked on the guidance system of the earlier Corporal missile.
Parks was born in Los Angeles, Calif., in 1922. He was graduated from the California Institute of Technology in 1944, with degree in electrical engineering.
Parks is married and has three sons and one grandchild. He lives in La Canada.
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