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Captain Robert “Hoot” Gibson will be the guest speaker at Indiana Tech’s Commencement ceremony on May 16. In 18 years as an astronaut Gibson flew five space flights, four of them as the mission commander, aboard the Space Shuttles Challenger, Columbia, Atlantis, and Endeavour.
Gibson earned an aeronautical engineering degree from California Polytechnic State University. He then joined the U.S. Navy and served as a fighter pilot in southeast Asia. He graduated first in his class at the U.S. Navy Test Pilot School and was a test pilot until being selected as an astronaut in 1978 in the first Space Shuttle astronaut selection. In his career with NASA, he held the positions of deputy chief of NASA aircraft operations, chief of the astronaut office, and deputy director of flight crew operations.
Gibson was inducted into the Astronaut Hall of Fame in 2003 and has received numerous honors, awards and decorations including the DOD Distinguished Service Medal, the Legion of Merit, the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Air Medal (3 awards), the Navy Commendation Medal with Combat Distinguishing Device, and the Humanitarian Service Medal, and the Vietnam Service Medal.
This year’s Commencement ceremony will include more than 550 Indiana Tech students who have earned associate, bachelor’s, and master’s degrees.
The Class of 2009 includes the first students to complete the Master of Science in Organizational Leadership. The 12-month program began in March 2008, and 22 students completed the degree in March 2009.
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