UHCL Alumni

Physician
Former NASA Astronaut
UHCL Alumnus

Good evening UHCL family!

It is with a heavy heart that we must inform you that this is the final blog highlighting UHCL alumni. Tears! We know that you are going to miss our informative and impressive coverage of your fellow UHCL alumni. The good news is that by reading these blogs you are surely to have been inspired and encouraged to be great and to let UHCL help you achieve that greatness!

And now for the good stuff! For our final blog we saved the best for last.

Among the several notable alumni we have highlighted over the past few months, this one is without a doubt the most impressive. How impressive? What is more impressive than a physician or astronaut UHCL alumnus? A physician astronaut UHCL alumnus, that’s what!

We present you, Franklin Story Musgrave (cool name!), physician, retired NASA astronaut, public speaker, former U.S. Marine, and of course, UHCL alumnus.

Musgrave was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1935.

He attended Syracuse University and earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and statistics, but he didn’t stop there. He went on to earn a master’s degree in computer programming from the University of California in Los Angeles in 1958. Just a year later he received a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Marietta College. That still wasn’t enough for Musgrave. In 1964, he earned an M.D. degree from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. One would think that an M.D. would be the pinnacle of education and probably a good stopping point, but one would be wrong. Musgrave then received a master’s degree in physiology and biophysics from the University of Kentucky in 1966 and then, he finally saw the light, and earned a master’s degree in literature from UHCL in 1987.

Musgrave enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps in 1953 where he served as a crew chief in Korea, Japan and Hawaii. He has flown a mind-blowing total of 17,700 hours. He is also a highly qualified aircraft and instrument instructor. Did we mention he is also an accomplished parachutist logging more than 800 free falls?

NASA selected Musgrave as an astronaut in 1967. Among his notable achievements within the space industry are his significant contributions to the design and development of the Skylab program and Space Shuttle extravehicular activity equipment including spacesuits, life support systems, airlocks, and manned maneuvering units. He served as the backup pilot for the first Skylab mission. Musgrave flew on the STS-6, STS-51F, STS-33, STS-44, STS-61, and STS-80 for a total of 1281 hours 59 minutes, 22 seconds in space. Musgrave will forever be a part of history having been the only astronaut to fly missions on all five space shuttle vehicles. He is also one of the oldest astronauts to ever fly in space at the age of 61, a true symbol of his unrelenting ambition.

During his tenure at NASA, Musgrave also served as a part-time physician at Denver General Hospital. He spent time doing research on cardiovascular and exercise physiology. Among his notable achievements in clinical medicine are writing and co-authoring 25 scientific papers related to aerospace medicine, physiology, temperature regulation and clinical surgery. Bet you were wondering when and how that literature degree from UHCL would come in handy!  Musgrave describes the value of his literature degree best when he says: “I’ve already written 300 space poems. But I look upon my ultimate form as being a poetic prose. When you read it, it appears to be prose, but within the prose you have embedded the techniques of poetry.” Wow, what a writer!

Musgrave might arguably go down in history as the most impressive alumnus in history, and he will take the title of UHCL graduate along with him. His very existence embodies the UHCL brand: successful, leader, and legacy. GO HAWKS!