At the height of the Cold War, Bud Wheelon became the first deputy director for science and technology at the CIA, overseeing the development of the United States' revolutionary reconnaissance satellite program, which ultimately proved that the Soviet Union's nuclear arsenal was smaller than expected.
Albert Dewell Wheelon, '49, died September 27 at his home in Montecito, Calif., from cancer. He was 84.
An early interest in engineering led Wheelon to his father's machine shop, a job at Douglas Aircraft as a teenager and to Stanford when he was just 16. By 1952, he had earned a PhD in physics from MIT and become an expert on electromagnetic scintillation, the transmission of electromagnetic waves through space. He joined the Ramo-Wooldridge Corp. to help build the country's first operational intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), which launched in 1959.
In 1962 the CIA hired Wheelon to run its scientific intelligence division where, among other things, he was tasked with presenting aerial photos to President John F. Kennedy during the Cuban Missile Crisis. The following year, he was appointed to head the agency's newly created Directorate of Science and Technology, where he developed spy planes such as the SR-71 Blackbird and led the Corona Program, which built the United States' first space photo reconnaissance satellite. By the time the program ended in 1972, Corona satellites had located all 25 ICBM complexes in the Soviet Union.
Wheelon was awarded the United States Distinguished Intelligence Medal by the CIA in 1966. He spent the next 22 years at Hughes Aircraft, where he served as chair and grew the company to an 83,000-employee, industry-leading manufacturer of commercial communications satellites. His many other awards include the Simon Ramo Founders Award, bestowed posthumously in October by the National Academy of Engineering.
"He absolutely had a very external love for his country," says his sister, Marcia, who describes Wheelon as a quiet, reserved gentleman who never stopped conducting research on his first passion, physics. "It started in the Midwest, where he was born, and he worked most of his life in support of the country's security. He loved his country with great depth, and his work is a reflection of that."
Wheelon was predeceased by his first wife, Nancy Hermanson, and their daughter, Elizabeth Wheelon. He is survived by his wife of 29 years, Cicely (Evans, '52); daughter Cynthia Wheelon; one grandson; and his sister.
Grace Chao, '14, is a Stanford intern.
