Obituaries : J. McNamara; Former Rockwell Space Chief

Joseph P. McNamara, who helped direct Rockwell International’s Space Division during the Apollo, Skylab and early Space Station and Space Shuttle programs from 1967 to 1974, critical developmental years for those projects, died Tuesday at his home in Laguna Niguel. He was 77, had cancer, and had retired as president of Rockwell’s Space Operations Division in 1976.

An engineering graduate of UC Berkeley, McNamara joined North American Aviation, Rockwell’s predecessor firm, as a project engineer in 1943 at Kansas City, Kan., when the company was putting together B-25 bombers at the rate of one hour and 58 minutes to solidify America’s supremacy in the air.

He came to Los Angeles and supervised the reactivation of the company’s Downey facility in 1948 and then returned to the Midwest, this time to Neosho, Mo., where he was plant manager during construction of the Thor, Atlas, Jupiter and H-1 Saturn engines. He subsequently became executive vice president and then president of the Space Division. In 1973, he was given NASA’s Public Service Medal, the space agency’s highest award.

Survivors include his wife, Elizabeth, and four children.