For Release: Nov. 6, 1998

Dave Drachlis
Media Services Branch
(256) 544-0034
dave.drachlis@msfc.nasa.gov

RELEASE: 97-261

Grady S. Jobe, director of Science and Engineering at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., has announced plans to retire from NASA later this year.

No decision has been made as to who will replace him.

Jobe has served as director of the Science and Engineering Directorate -- the largest organization at Marshall Center -- since January 1997. He supervises the work of nearly 1,800 persons engaged in a wide variety of scientific and engineering programs. The directorate’s responsibilities include design, development, testing, mission operations and evaluation of launch vehicle space transportation systems, payloads and other projects and programs.

Jobe came to Marshall Center in 1960 as a cooperative education student.

Graduating from Auburn University in 1961, he joined Marshall as an electrical engineer. He served as chief of the Ground Systems Section in the Astrionics Laboratory, and as chief of the Software Development Branch of the Data Systems Laboratory. In 1982, he became chief of the Mission Computers Systems Branch, and in 1990 was named chief of the Computers and Communications Division in the Information and Electronic Systems Laboratory. Later that year, he was appointed deputy director of the Astrionics Laboratory, and in 1995 was named director of Institutional and Program Support.

Jobe was awarded the NASA medal for Exceptional Engineering Achievement in 1988. Earlier this year he received the NASA Medal for Outstanding Leadership.

A native of New Market, Ala., Jobe graduated from New Market High School in 1955. He and his wife, the former Joyce Annette Hamm of Cherokee, Ala., reside in Huntsville and have one child, Eric Shane, of San Diego, Calif.