Anders Chair
The Anders Chair honors William A. Anders (Maj Gen, USAFR, Retired), and was established by a gift to ARDI from General Dynamics Corporation
William A. Anders
William Anders was born October 17, 1933, in Hong Kong. His father was a Navy lieutenant aboard the USS Panay, an American gunboat on duty in China’s Yangtze River. During the 1937 Japanese attack on Nanking, Anders and his mother had to flee China. The same year, the Japanese attacked and sank the Panay; during the battle, Anders’ father earned the Navy Cross for bravery. William received a Bachelor of Science degree from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1955. He was then commissioned in the U.S. Air Force, serving as a fighter pilot in all-weather interception squadrons of the Air Defense Command. He received a Master of Science degree in Nuclear Engineering from the Air Force Institute of Technology in 1962 and was assigned responsibility for technical management of nuclear power reactor shielding and radiation-effects programs at the Air Force Weapons Laboratory.
William Anders was selected as an astronaut in October 1963. After more than five years of training, he was named the Lunar Module pilot on the Apollo 8 mission. In December 1968, as a crew member of Apollo 8, he was one of the first three people to leave low Earth orbit and travel to the Moon. Along with fellow astronauts Frank Borman and Jim Lovell, Anders circled the Moon ten times, and broadcast live images and commentary back to Earth. During one of the mission’s lunar orbits he photographed the iconic image Earthrise.
William Anders left the civil service after 26 years of service and joined the General Electric Company (GE) in September 1977 as Vice President and General Manager of the Nuclear Products Division in San Jose, California. On January 1, 1980, he was appointed General Manager of the GE Aircraft Equipment Division with headquarters in Utica, New York. In 1984, he left GE to join Textron as Executive Vice President-Aerospace, moving to Senior Executive Vice President-Operations in 1986. He was also a consultant to the Office of Science and Technology Policy and was a member of the Defense Science Board & the NASA Advisory Council. In 1988, he retired from the Air Force Reserve with the rank of major general.
From June 1969 to 1973 William Anders served as Executive Secretary for the National Aeronautics and Space Council, which was responsible to the President, Vice President and Cabinet-level members of the Council for developing policy options concerning research, development, operations, and planning of aeronautical and space systems.
On August 6, 1973, Anders was appointed to the five-member Atomic Energy Commission where he was lead commissioner for all nuclear and non-nuclear power R&D. He was also named as U. S. Chairman of the joint US/USSR technology exchange program for nuclear fission and fusion power. On January 19, 1975, William Anders was named the first Chairman of the newly established Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). At the completion of his term as NRC Chairman, Anders was appointed United States Ambassador to Norway and held that position until 1977.
General Anders became Vice Chairman of the General Dynamic Corporation in 1990 and was made Chairman & Chief Executive Office on January 1, 1991. In 1993 he retired as an employee of the corporation but remained Chairman of the Board until May of 1994 when he fully retired from company service. He holds many awards, including Distinguished Service Medals from the Air Force, NASA and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission; the Air Force Commendation Medal; the National Geographic Society’s Hubbard Medal for Exploration; the Collier, Harmon, Goddard and White Trophies; and the American Astronautical Society’s Flight Achievement Award.
William Anders has also been awarded several honorary doctoral degrees. He holds several world flight records and received the American Defense Preparedness Association’s first Industry Leadership Award in May 1993. Anders Crater on the Moon is named in his honor.
Current Distinguished Visiting Professor
Dr. Neal Rappaport
Current Professor
Dr. Neal Rappaport
Department
Defense Economics
Dr. Neal Rappaport is the Anders Chair in Defense Economics, United States Air Force Academy, Department of Economics and Geosciences, for academic year 2024-2025. Dr. Rappaport has a BA and MBA from the University of Chicago and a PhD in Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He served 27 years as an active-duty Air Force officer, retiring in 2011 as a Colonel. Among his military assignments were teaching tours at the Air Force Academy where he twice served as Department Head, multiple combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, Air and Defense Attache in Macedonia (now North Macedonia) and Kosovo, the Air Staff and Joint Staff at the Pentagon, and briefly as the Senior Economist for International Trade on the President’s Council of Economic Advisors. His awards and decorations include the Bronze Star for his service in Afghanistan, the Legion of Merit, the CIA’s National Intelligence Certificate of Distinction, and the Air Force Academy’s award for teaching excellence, the Heiser Award.
Following his retirement from active duty, Dr. Rappaport spent one year as a Department of Defense civilian in Afghanistan overseeing the Force Development and Transition Plans for the Afghan National Security Forces. He then returned to academia teaching full-time at Colorado College, Colorado Springs, and Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts. Dr. Rappaport also taught shorter courses for universities in China and Cambodia and consulted to the United Arab Emirates’ equivalent to the Air Force Academy, the Khalifa Bin Zayed Air College. He has made numerous presentations on topics including the micro and macroeconomic effects of defense spending, the economies of the Middle East and Latin America, and the effects of Covid on the US labor market. His work on technological change and inflation was incorporated in an update to the Consumer Price Index used in determining cost of living adjustments for Social Security and other benefits. Dr. Rappaport is also a polyglot, fluent in four languages and conversational in four others.
