For Release: June 30, 1999

Jerry Berg
Media Relations Department
(256) 544-0034
Jerry.Berg@msfc.nasa.gov
/centers/msfc/NEWSROOM/

RELEASE: 99-112

Marshall Center Managers, Retirees To Be Honored
For Service at NASA Headquarters Ceremony

Five current and past employees of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., will be honored for their service to NASA during the 1999 Agency honors awards ceremony.

NASA administrator Daniel Goldin will present the awards Wednesday, June 30, at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C.

Carolyn S. Griner, deputy director of the Marshall Center, will receive the space Agency’s highest honor, the Distinguished Service Medal, for her extraordinary contributions to NASA’s missions. Only 12 employees will receive the honor this year.

Goldin also will recognize four Marshall Center employees chosen by President Clinton as recipients of the Presidential Rank of Meritorious Executive for service in 1998. They are Sidney P. Saucier, Marshall’s associate director; Frederick (Rick) D. Bachtel, deputy director of the Space Transportation Directorate; William E. Taylor, former director of the Science and Engineering Directorate, now retired; and Richard A. Marmann, former manager of the Flight Projects Office, now retired.

The Presidential recognition is awarded to employees demonstrating sustained accomplishment in their field. Only 252 of the federal government’s nearly 2 million civilian employees were selected for the award this year.

Griner, who served as acting director of the Marshall Center from January to September 1998, joined Marshall in 1964. She has received numerous awards throughout her career, including the NASA Exceptional Service Medal in 1986, the Presidential Rank of Meritorious Executive in 1992 and the Presidential Rank of Distinguished Executive in 1995.

She earned her bachelor’s degree in astronautical engineering from Florida State University in Tallahassee in 1967. She has completed graduate work in industrial and systems engineering at the University of Alabama in Huntsville.

Saucier joined Marshall in 1962, following service in the Air Force. He is a 1959 graduate of Mississippi State University in Starkville, with a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering. In 1986, Saucier was awarded two NASA Exceptional Service Medals for exemplary leadership and successful management of Inertial Upper Stage project activities.

Bachtel began his NASA career as a cooperative education student while attending the University of Cincinnati in Ohio, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering. In his 30 years as an engineer specializing in propulsion, Bachtel has received several NASA awards.

Taylor retired in January as the director of Science and Engineering. He began his work at Marshall in 1963, and his early career focused on space telescopes. In 1996, he was named deputy chief engineer for NASA in Washington, D.C., then returned to Marshall to head Science and Engineering. Taylor received a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind., in 1959, and a master’s in business administration in 1970 from Florida State University in Tallahassee.

Marmann retired in January after serving as manager of Marshall’s Flight Projects Office. He joined Marshall in 1963 to work in propulsion and engineering. He is a 1953 graduate of the University of North Alabama in Florence, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and chemistry. Marmann earned the NASA Exceptional Service Medal in 1973.

The Marshall Space Flight Center is NASA’s premier organization for developing space transportation and propulsion systems and for conducting microgravity research. Marshall also is NASA’s Center of Excellence for Space Propulsion.

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/centers/msfc/NEWSROOM/

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