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George Michael Low was born George Wilhelm Low on
June 10, 1926, near Vienna, Austria. His parents
were Artur and Gertrude Burger Low, small business
people in Austria. With the German occupation of
Austria in 1938, four years after Artur Low's
death, his family emigrated to the United States.
In 1943, Low graduated from Forest Hills High
School, Forest Hills, New York, and entered
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI). His
education was interrupted by the war and from 1944
to 1946, in which he served in the U.S. Army.
While doing so, he became a naturalized American
citizen, and legally changed his name to George
Michael Low.

After military service Low returned to RPI and
received his Bachelor of Aeronautical Engineering
degree in 1948. He then worked at General Dynamics
(Convair) in Fort Worth, Texas, as a mathematician
in an aerodynamics group. Low returned to RPI late
in 1948, however, and received his Master of
Science degree in aeronautical engineering in
1950. In 1949, he married Mary Ruth McNamara of
Troy, New York. Between 1952 and 1963, they had
five children: Mark S., Diane E., George David,
John M., and Nancy A.

After completing his M.S. degree, Low joined the
National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA)
as an engineer at the Lewis Flight Propulsion
Laboratory in Cleveland, Ohio (later the Lewis
Research Center and now the Glenn Research
Center). He became head of the Fluid Mechanics
Section (1954-1956) and Chief of the Special
Projects Branch (1956-1958). Low specialized in
experimental and theoretical research in the
fields of heat transfer, boundary layer flows, and
internal aerodynamics. In addition, he worked on
such space technology problems as orbit
calculations, reentry paths, and space rendezvous
techniques.

During the summer and autumn of 1958, preceding
the formation of the National Aeronautics and
Space Administration (NASA), Low worked on a
planning team to organize the new aerospace
agency. Soon after NASA's formal organization in
October 1958, Low transferred to the agency's
headquarters in Washington, D.C., where he served
as Chief of Manned Space Flight. In this capacity,
he was closely involved in the planning of
Projects Project Mercury|Mercury, Project
Gemini|Gemini, and Project Apollo|Apollo.

In February 1964, Low transferred to NASA's Manned
Spacecraft Center in Houston, Texas (now the
Johnson Space Center), and served as Deputy Center
Director. In April 1967, following the Apollo 204
fire, he was named Manager of the Apollo
Spacecraft Program Office (ASPO) where he was
responsible for directing the changes to the
Apollo spacecraft necessary to make it flight
worthy.

George Low became NASA Deputy Administrator in
December 1969, serving with Administrators Thomas
O. Paine and James C. Fletcher. As such, he became
one of the leading figures in the early
development of the Space Shuttle, the Skylab
program, and the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project.

Retiring from NASA in 1976, he became president of
RPI, a position he still held at his death. He
died of cancer on July 17, 1984.

His son, G. David Low, became an astronaut for
NASA in 1985.

Source:
http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/Biograph
ies/low.html

NASA