George Skurla, 80; Former President of Grumman Corp.

George Skurla, 80, a retired Grumman Corp. president who led the company’s Kennedy Space Center team responsible for the lunar module that shuttled Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin to the surface of the moon in 1969, died of pneumonia Sept. 2 in Melbourne, Fla.

Born in Newark, N.J., Skurla joined Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corp. as an apprentice engineer in 1944.

In 1965, he was named Grumman’s director of operations at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. The 1,600-member Grumman team conducted the final assembly, testing and prelaunch checkout of the Apollo 11 lunar module vehicle. The spacecraft was designed, developed and produced by Grumman. Six of the company’s 15 lunar modules landed on the moon.

Skurla rose to become company president in 1985 and retired in 1986.

In 1994, Northrop Corp. purchased Grumman. The new company is called Northrop Grumman Corp.