Former Northrop, NASA Official : Rites Wednesday for John F. McCarthy Jr.

Funeral services for Northrop Corp. executive and former NASA official John F. McCarthy Jr. will be conducted at 1 p.m. Wednesday at Waverly Church in Santa Ana.

McCarthy, a Yorba Linda resident, died Friday of a massive blood clot in the lungs while on a business trip to Boston. He was 60.

A native of Boston, McCarthy received an aeronautical engineering degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a doctorate from Caltech.

Research Center Chief

Before joining Northrop in 1982 as vice president and general manager of the Electro-Mechanical Division in Anaheim, McCarthy served as director of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Lewis Research Center in Cleveland, which conducted experiments on aircraft engine propulsion.

During his four years with NASA, he also served as a consultant to the Office of the Director of Defense Research and Engineering and as a member of the Joint Strategic Target Planning Staff scientific advisory group for the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He was awarded the NASA Distinguished Service Medal for his contributions.

McCarthy also was a professor of aeronautics and astronautics at MIT and later became director of the Center for Space Research there in 1974. His duties at MIT included managing a laboratory that performed pioneering work in space experimentation, data collection and theoretical analysis. He also received several military awards for his work on Air Force aircraft and for serving on an Air Force scientific advisory board.

Rockwell Vice President

Before joining MIT, McCarthy served as vice president for two divisions of Rockwell International. While there, he was involved in the basic design and testing of the Apollo command and service modules, noted for successful manned lunar landings.

He is survived by his wife, Camille, five children, his mother, a sister and three brothers.

A funeral service for McCarthy was held Monday at MIT. Services in Santa Ana Wednesday, coordinated by Brown Colonial Mortuary, will be followed by burial at Fairhaven Memorial Park in Santa Ana.