Nov 15 1998
From The Space Library
Dr. William K. Douglas, the physician who had overseen the care of the seven Mercury astronauts, died of a viral infection at the age of 76. As part of his assignment to NASA's Manned Spacecraft Center at Langley Air Force Base in Virginia, Dr. Douglas had been "personally responsible for the medical care and flight preparation of the seven Mercury astronauts." He had cared for Alan B. Shepard Jr., Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom, John H. Glenn Jr., and M. Scott Carpenter when they undertook the nation's first four human spaceflights. After retiring from the U.S. Air Force in 1977, Dr. Douglas had joined the McDonnell Douglas Corporation, where he had helped design an orbiting space station before retiring in 1988. In 1992 Douglas was inducted into the International Space Hall of Fame in Alamogordo, New Mexico.
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