Early life and education

Gordon was born in Seattle, Washington, on October 5, 1929, the first of five children of Richard Francis Gordon (1905–1963), a machinist, and his wife, Angela Frances Gordon (née Sullivan; 1904–1984), an elementary school teacher.^[2] He was a Boy Scout, and earned the rank of Star Scout.^[3] He graduated from North Kitsap High School in Poulsbo, Washington, in 1947, then entered the University of Washington, from where he received a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry in 1951 and he was also a member of Phi Sigma Kappa.^[4]

Naval career

After graduating from college, Gordon joined the United States Navy, and received his wings as a Naval Aviator in 1953. He then attended All-Weather Flight School and jet transitional training, and was subsequently assigned to an all-weather fighter squadron at Naval Air Station Jacksonville, Florida.^[4]

In 1957, he attended the United States Naval Test Pilot School at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland, and served as a flight test pilot until 1960. During this tour of duty, he did flight test work on the F-8U Crusader, F-11F Tiger, North American FJ Fury, and A-4D Skyhawk, and was the first project test pilot for the F4H-1 Phantom II. He served with Fighter Squadron 121 (VF-121) at the Naval Air Station Miramar, California, as a flight instructor in the F4H-1 and participated in the introduction of that aircraft to the Atlantic and Pacific Fleets. He was also flight safety officer, assistant operations officer, and ground training officer for Fighter Squadron 96 (VF-96) at Miramar. He logged more than 4,500 hours flying time with 3,500 hours of those hours in jet aircraft. He was also a student at the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School at Monterey, California.^[4]

He won the Bendix Trophy race from Los Angeles to New York City in May 1961, flying an F4H-1 in which he established a new speed record of 869.74 miles per hour and a transcontinental speed record of 2 hours and 47 minutes.^[4][5]

NASA career

Gordon poses in his Apollo 12 space suit

Gordon was one of the third group of astronauts, named by NASA in October 1963, being the oldest astronaut in his selection. He had been a finalist for the second selection, in 1962.^[4]

Project Gemini

Main article: Gemini 11

Gordon during his Gemini 11 flight

Gordon during his Gemini 11 EVA

Gordon served as backup pilot for the Gemini 8 flight. In September 1966, he made his first space flight, as pilot of Gemini 11, alongside Pete Conrad. At the time, the flight set an altitude record of 1,369 kilometres (851 mi), which still stands as the highest-apogee Earth orbit.^[6][7] Gordon was already good friends with Conrad, who had once been his roommate on the aircraft carrier USS Ranger. On the flight, Gordon performed two spacewalks, which included attaching a tether to the Agena and retrieving a nuclear emulsion experiment package.^[4]

Apollo program

Main article: Apollo 12

Gordon was subsequently assigned as backup command module pilot for Apollo 9. In November 1969, he flew as command module pilot of Apollo 12, the second crewed mission to land on the Moon. While his crewmates, Pete Conrad and Alan Bean, landed in the Ocean of Storms, Gordon remained in lunar orbit aboard the command module Yankee Clipper, photographing tentative landing sites for future missions.^[4]

After Apollo 12, Gordon served as backup commander of Apollo 15. He was slated to walk on the Moon as commander of Apollo 18, but that mission was canceled because of budget cuts.^[8]

Pete Conrad, Dick Gordon, and Alan Bean pose with their Apollo 12 Saturn V Moon rocket in the background on the pad at Cape Canaveral on October 29, 1969

Gordon logged a total of 315 hours and 53 minutes in space, of which 2 hours and 41 minutes were spent in EVA.^[4]

Post-NASA career

After leaving NASA, Gordon served as executive vice president of the New Orleans Saints Professional Football Club in the National Football League (1972–1976);^[2] was general manager of Energy Developers, Limited (EDL), a Texas partnership involved in a joint venture with Rocket Research Corporation for the development of a liquid chemical explosive for use in the oil and gas industry (1977); president of Resolution Engineering and Development Company (REDCO), which provided design and operational requirements for wild oil well control and fire fighting equipment on board large semisubmersible utility vessels (1978); following REDCO merger with Amarco Resources, Gordon assumed the additional duties of vice president of marketing, Westdale, an oil well servicing subsidiary of AMARCO operating in North Central Texas and Oklahoma, and also served as vice president for operations, Texas Division (1980); served as director, Scott Science and Technology, Inc., Los Angeles Division (1981–1983).^[4]

In March 1982 he became president of Astro Sciences Corporation. This company provides a range of services including engineering, project management, project field support teams, to software and hardware system design for control room applications. In the summer of 1984, Gordon was a technical advisor for and played the part of "Capcom" in the CBS miniseries Space by James A. Michener.^[4]

Gordon served as chairman and co-chairman of the Louisiana Heart Fund, chairman of the March of Dimes (Mother's March), honorary chairman for Muscular Dystrophy, and on the boards of directors for the Boy Scouts of America and Boys' Club of Greater New Orleans.^[4]

Personal life and death

From his marriage (which ended in divorce) to his first wife Barbara Field, who died in 2014, Gordon had six children.^[2][10] He died in San Marcos, California, on November 6, 2017, at the age of 88.^[2][7][11] He was survived by five of his children, Carleen Trevino, Richard, Lawrence, Thomas and Diane Briggs; his sisters Barbara Pethick and Mary Frederick, and brother Norman; and two stepchildren, Traci and Christopher, from his second wife Linda,^[2] who died on September 12, 2017.^[11] His hobbies included water skiing and golf.^[4] He was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.^[12]