Apollo astronaut Frank Borman, a hometown Tucson hero, dies at 95

NASA astronaut Frank Borman always credited his formative years growing up in Tucson with helping lead him to his place in history as commander of the first Apollo mission to the moon and one of the first three humans to see Earth as a distant sphere in space.

He died Tuesday in Billings, Montana, at age 95, NASA says.

In 1968, Borman and his two crewmates on the Apollo 8 mission, James Lovell and William Anders, circled the moon 10 times, paving the way for the moon landing the next year. Borman and crewmates maneuvered into lunar orbit on Christmas Eve. They read from the Book of Genesis in a live telecast from the orbiter that night.

“Today we remember one of NASA’s best. Astronaut Frank Borman was a true American hero,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said Thursday. “His lifelong love for aviation and exploration was only surpassed by his love for his wife Susan” — his sweetheart since their Tucson High School days.

Borman, who moved to Tucson at age 6 and considered it his hometown, attended Sam Hughes Elementary, Mansfeld Middle School and was a honor-student graduate of Tucson High, class of 1946. “For me, Tucson High was a defining experience,” he told the Arizona Daily Star in 2006.

He is the namesake of Frank Borman Elementary School in Tucson, which opened in 1977 and is operated and maintained by Tucson Unified School District in cooperation with Davis-Monthan Air Force Base.

“I have the helmet he wore on Gemini 7 and the watch he wore on Apollo 8 in my office, as a reminder of the contributions this great Tucsonan made to space exploration,” said former astronaut U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly of Tucson, who commanded the space shuttle Endeavor’s final flight in 2011. “Thank you, Frank, and rest in peace.”

“A long, great life lived with grace,” Keith Haviland, a movie producer who worked with Borman on films about the Apollo astronauts, wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “He was magnificent. Godspeed!”

Launched from Florida’s Cape Canaveral on Dec. 21, 1968, the Apollo 8 trio spent three days traveling to the moon, and slipped into lunar orbit on Christmas Eve. After they circled 10 times on Dec. 24-25, they headed home on Dec. 27.

On Christmas Eve, the astronauts read from the Book of Genesis in a live telecast from the orbiter: “In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.”

Borman ended the broadcast with, “And from the crew of Apollo 8, we close with good night, good luck, a Merry Christmas, and God bless all of you — all of you on the good Earth.”

It was on the crew’s fourth orbit that Anders snapped the iconic “Earthrise” photo showing a blue and white Earth rising above the gray lunar landscape.

“It’s arguably the most iconic photograph of the 20th century: the Earth rising above the Moon’s bleached and desolate horizon, a breathtaking jewel of color,” Smithsonian magazine has said.

Borman later wrote about how the Earth looked from afar:

“We were the first humans to see the world in its majestic totality, an intensely emotional experience for each of us. We said nothing to each other, but I was sure our thoughts were identical — of our families on that spinning globe. And maybe we shared another thought I had, This must be what God sees.”

Lovell and Borman had previously flown together during the two-week Gemini 7 mission, which launched on Dec. 4, 1965 — and, at only 120 feet apart, completed the first space orbital rendezvous with Gemini 6.

“Gemini was a tough go,” Borman told The Associated Press in 1998. “It was smaller than the front seat of a Volkswagen bug. It made Apollo seem like a super-duper, plush touring bus.”

In his book, “Countdown: An Autobiography,” Borman said Apollo 8 was originally supposed to orbit Earth. The success of Apollo 7’s mission in October 1968 to show system reliability on long duration flights made NASA decide it was time to take a shot at flying to the moon.

But Borman said there was another reason NASA changed the plan: the agency wanted to beat the Russians. Borman said he thought one orbit would suffice.

“My main concern in this whole flight was to get there ahead of the Russians and get home. That was a significant achievement in my eyes,” Borman explained at a Chicago appearance in 2017.

After NASA, Borman’s aviation career ventured into business in 1970 when he joined Eastern Airlines — at that time the nation’s fourth-largest airline. He eventually became Eastern’s president and CEO and in 1976 also became its chairman of the board.

Borman’s tenure at Eastern saw fuel prices increase sharply and the government deregulate the airline industry. The airline became increasingly unprofitable, debt-ridden and torn by labor tensions. He resigned in 1986 and moved to Las Cruces, New Mexico.

In his autobiography, Borman wrote that his fascination with flying began in his teens in Tucson when he and his father would assemble model airplanes.

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At age 15, Borman took flying lessons at the old Gilpin Field in Tucson, using money he had saved working as a bag boy and pumping gas after school. He took his first solo flight after eight hours of dual instruction.

“I worked six days a week at Steinfeld’s,” the prominent local department store of the day in Tucson, “sweeping the basement and working in sporting goods,” Borman later said of his youth. “I made 18 bucks a week — enough for flying.” He also made a little money with his newspaper route delivering the Star.

He continued flying into his 90s.

Borman was born in Gary, Indiana, but was raised in Tucson after his family moved here for the better climate for Frank’s sinus problems. His father bought a lease on a Mobil service station.

In the mid-1940s, Tucsonans became entranced by Coach Rollin T. Gridley’s winning Tucson High football teams, as Borman — a reserve quarterback nicknamed “Brain” Borman — later recalled.

“That team in 1945 had character,” said Borman. “It was just a group of guys who were very dedicated. Coach Gridley was responsible for our success. He’s a man who changed all of our lives and was a positive influence. I mean that.”

In fact, Borman kept a photo of his former coach on the wall of his office when he lived in Las Cruces, and in his autobiography, he praised Gridley as a pivotal person in his life. “He just stood for all the right things,” he said. “Discipline was a hallmark with Mr. Gridley.”

Borman also gave credit to his former teachers, later telling the Arizona Daily Star, “They were really dedicated teachers.” He especially remembered his classes in math and chemistry.

“I went to West Point straight out of Tucson High. Most of my classmates had been to college or had come out of the Army. But I was well-prepared. For me, Tucson High was a defining experience.”

Borman earned a bachelor of science degree in 1950 from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. He drove back to Tucson with his parents in his brand-new Oldsmobile 88 for the traditional 60-day furlough after graduation.

That same year, Borman married Susan Bugbee, who had graduated two years behind him from Tucson High. “We had a wonderful time,” Borman told the Star.

They wed on July 20, 1950, at St. Philip’s in the Hills Episcopal Church in Tucson.

Borman worked as a U.S. Air Force fighter pilot, operational pilot and instructor at West Point after graduation. In 1956, Borman moved his family to Pasadena, California, where he earned a master of science degree in aeronautical engineering from California Institute of Technology. In 1962, he was one of nine test pilots chosen by NASA for the astronaut program.

An Associated Press article in 1968 described proud parents Edwin and Marjorie Ann Borman flying from their home in Arizona to Cape Kennedy to watch their son blast off on the longest manned space adventure yet undertaken at that time.

The Tucson astronaut’s wife Susan and their two sons, Frederick, 14, and Edwin, 12, also flew to Cape Kennedy to observe the launch. Susan’s mother, Ruth Bugbee, also of Tucson, was on hand, as well.

According to the article, “’Susan and the sons ‘don’t seem excited,’ the astronaut’s mother said. ‘She’s lovely and the boys are terrific. But that’s Grandma talking,’ she quipped.”

In 2010, Frank Borman, while visiting Tucson for a Tucson High reunion, gave a talk at Mission Manor Elementary School, inspiring the students to dream big.

“I am here to tell you about a fantastic trip I took many, many years ago, long before you were born and before your parents were born,” said Borman. “Our rocket was 36 stories high and burned 2,000 gallons of fuel a second,” Borman said to the oohs and aahs of 500 students in Sunnyside Unified School District.

When he was young in Tucson he never thought he would travel in space, he marveled. He advised the youngsters to be honest, gain knowledge, set goals, have moral courage to do what is right, and sacrifice for their dreams.

In May of 2008, Borman also spoke at the University of Arizona commencement ceremony.

Borman received the Congressional Space Medal of Honor from President Jimmy Carter.

The Pima Air & Space Museum in Tucson notes on its website that Borman was instrumental in getting the moon rock sample displayed there.

In 1998, Borman started a cattle ranch in Bighorn, Montana, with his son, Fred.

Susan Borman died in 2021.

In addition to Fred, Borman is survived by son Edwin, and by both sons’ families.

“I think the one overwhelming emotion that we had was when we saw the Earth rising in the distance over the lunar landscape — it makes us realize that we all do exist on one small globe,” Borman famously said. “From 230,000 miles away, it really is a small planet.”

“When you’re finally up on the moon, looking back at the Earth, all these differences and nationalistic traits are pretty well going to blend and you’re going to get a concept that maybe this is really one world and why the hell can’t we learn to live together like decent people?”

It was an image he said he would remember “till the day I die.”