During his undergraduate years, Tom Tate '56 was a member of the Royal Warrior Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC). Tom also played baseball as starting catcher with the Tomcats/Royals coached by the legendary Pete Carlesimo, who had an impact on Tom far beyond the field.
ROTC was compulsory back then, but Tom came to see it as a gift that helped launch his life's journey. Although Tom always possessed the ability to handle difficult and stressful situations, he credits his time with ROTC, his Jesuit training and his bachelor's degree in marketing with sharpening his self-confidence and leadership skills in a manner that set him on the path to success.
"My Jesuit education provided character building and self-discipline with rigorous leadership training from the military sciences," he says.
After graduation, Tom witnessed intense change in our world and knew he wanted to be part of something bigger. Dwight D. Eisenhower was inaugurated for a second term as president and was supporting the military efforts, building highways and passing legislative initiatives too long to share. In the meantime, the Civil Rights Movement and its struggles for justice and equality for African American people was underway with Martin Luther King Jr. at the helm, and a music revolution erupted when Elvis Presley appeared on the "Ed Sullivan Show" with his controversial look and gyrating dance moves. Although Tom really wanted to join the dance revolution, Uncle Sam had a different plan in mind.
"Second Lieutenant Tate was off to Fort Bliss Texas for anti-aircraft artillery (AAA) and guided missile training," Tom says.
After completing his service to our nation, Tom came home to Olyphant and Scranton looking for work. His search was short-lived when one look at his resume and experience landed him a classified position developing missile and surface radar at Radio Corporation of America (RCA) in New Jersey for the Ballistic Missile Early Warning System being built for the United States Air Force.
While at RCA, a full-scale crisis occurred when the Soviets launched the world's first artificial satellite, Sputnik. The year was 1957, and this successful launch not only had a negative effect on our military, but also on the public opinion of our government. As a result, new agencies for space research and development became a high priority, and in response, President Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958, establishing NASA. The program started taking shape in the early '60s, right around the time Tom's work with RCA's classified program was nearing completion.
When President John F. Kennedy said, "I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth," Tom was listening. Fascinated with this bold proclamation and the unprecedented excitement it inspired in the public's imagination, Tom knew he wanted to be part of the new frontier of space and took a leap of faith by driving to California to explore his opportunities. Without a job or connection to the space industry, he shared his resume and landed employment at the Space Division of Rockwell International in Downey, California.
In the next decade, life changed dramatically for Tom when he met Arlene Johnson at a party. Arlene was a NASA employee in the flight test program working in the Edwards Air Force NASA Facility, now called Armstrong's NASA Flight Research Center. The couple shared the same vision of winning the space race, albeit from two different perspectives, and they were married soon after. He was also busy earning his law degree from Western State College all while moving up the ladder of success at Rockwell. During that time Tom was named the director of Space Operations Pioneering, a position in which he developed groundbreaking work and technology for the Gemini Paraglider, Apollo, Apollo/Soyuz and Shuttle programs from vision to inception to delivery for NASA.
Back then, the space program was solely driven by government agencies seeking to expand national security capabilities and prestige. And, although Congress held the purse strings for space funding, its members were not exactly experts in the science, design and manufacturing of air flight equipment, or the technique and art of operating aircraft and rockets within the atmosphere. So, in 1973, Tom received a call from Olin E. Teague, a congressional representative from Texas who was serving as the chairman of the House Committee on Science and Astronautics.
Teague, a huge proponent of R&D for space exploration, had a burning desire for America to win "the race to conquer space" and needed a company insider. Tom's name surfaced several times when Teague was trying to find the right person to help him understand the shuttle program and what it would take to get the shuttle off the ground. Teague invited Tom to come work with him in Washington, D.C., and Tom accepted the position after Arlene's transfer papers to NASA Headquarters were in place. Bringing Tom to "The Hill" was a genius move because of his unique understanding of the aeronautics industry. Not only was Tom intimately familiar with one of the greatest engineering feats of our times, he was also a highly trained professional marketer who could help persuade Congress to procure government funding for Teague's programs.
Tom served as the technical consultant and counsel to the House Subcommittee on Space Science and Applications, and, after 15 years on The Hill, he left to serve as the vice president of the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA), the trade association representing 54 companies that manufacture aerospace and military flight equipment. In this capacity, Tom directed and monitored policy issues affecting the space industry while preparing testimony that communicated the industry's viewpoint to Congress.
The shuttle was different from previous spacecraft because it was a reusable manned aircraft. Tom witnessed the first 25 missions at Florida's Kennedy Space Center alongside government leadership and member companies. He was also scheduled to witness the launch of the Space Shuttle Challenger's 10th mission on its originally scheduled date of January 22, 1986. The shuttle's launch date, however, was delayed for several days, which allowed Tom to have lunch with Michael J. Smith, Francis R. (Dick) Scobee, Ronald E. McNair, Ellison Onizuka, Gregory Jarvis and Judith Resnick, the astronauts in its crew who he was proud to call his friends, the day before it was cleared for take-off. Although Tom had to return to Washington before the shuttle's launch and was not on hand to witness the Challenger's disastrous explosion, a tragedy that instantly killed his friends and the seventh member of its crew, school teacher Christa McAuliffe, he was shaken by the incident and wept along with the rest of his extended NASA and Rockwell families.
In 1991, Tom was awarded the Frank J. O'Hara Award in Science and Technology, the highest recognition the University bestows on its alumni for outstanding and prestigious achievements.
Tom resigned his Washington post in 2003 when Arlene became ill. Arlene passed away in Tom's arms on March 7, 2013, and many members of their NASA and Rockwell families served as pallbearers and comforted Tom through that difficult period.
Tom's legacy with our space program is a powerful reminder of where a University of Scranton degree can take you. Although he traveled far and wide in the years after graduation, his love for The University of Scranton remained front and center in his life because of Scranton's outstanding professors and the Jesuits who encouraged his curiosity and the Socratic method of learning.
"The Jesuits taught me and continue to teach current students to look beyond what is in front of them," he says. "Throughout my life, I stayed connected to Scranton and the Alumni Society. Because of my work on The Hill, I was able to bring the Joseph M. McDade Congressional Papers Collection to the Weinberg Memorial Library. I recommended and secured many notable speakers for Scranton's commencements and stayed involved in various ways. And because of great professors and the Jesuit influence on my life, I established, endowed and continue to support The Tate Family Scholarship. I've also chosen membership in The Estate Society.
"I know that with philanthropy comes promise and possibilities. I want the next generation of explorers to receive a Catholic and Jesuit education that takes them to discovering their great frontier. Together, our support can redirect their future in ways unimagined. I firmly believe in the scripture 'To whom much is given, much is expected,' and I am honored to support my alma mater's mission."
Please redefine and reimagine the future of tomorrow's students at The University of Scranton by including your alma mater in your estate plan. It just takes one sentence! Contact Carol Maculloch, MBA, CFRE at 570-941-7799 or plannedgiving@scranton.edu to help you realize your philanthropic goals and to thank Scranton for the wonderful foundation it laid for your life's journey.