N.C. A&T Alumni Times

Fifty years ago a Lake City, South Carolina native named Ronald Erwin McNair ’71 began his first year at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University in Greensboro, North Carolina. He came to N.C. A&T as a physics major in the Department of Engineering. His brother Carl S. McNair recalled how Ronald was intimidated at first and switched his major to music. Fortunately, a university counselor pulled him out of the music class and convinced him that he could accomplish a degree in physics. He would still become well known for his musical abilities. He made the honors list his freshman year.

As McNair was completing his first year at A&T in the spring of 1968, a young woman named Alma Shealey Adams was graduating. Like most of the engineering students at the time, he would have taken classes in Cherry Hall under the direction of Dean Gerald Marteena. He would have eaten in the cafeterias in Brown Hall or Murphy Hall. He was also among the first Aggies to experience the brand new Memorial Student Union which opened in the spring of 1967 on John W. Mitchell Drive.

An outstanding scholar and athlete, McNair was mentioned in the A&T Register a dozen times during his undergraduate years. In the summer of 1969, before starting his junior year, he was one of five physics majors to intern at Duke University working alongside professors and graduate students. In the fall of 1969, he joined the Mu Psi chapter of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc.

By his senior year, McNair was the head instructor and brown belt for the A&T Karate Do-Jo Club. As he told the A&T Register in March 1971, “Karate involves the whole body from breath to muscle to mind.” One of the students he instructed was Dr. Judy Rashid, a future dean of students. In the U.S. Karate Tournament held that year in Asheville, North Carolina., the A&T Club took home six trophies. This was one of the club's many victories under his leadership.

McNair graduated from N.C. A&T in 1971 magna cum laude. As he was leaving the university, one of the sophomores on campus was a young man named Harold L. Martin, who would later become the university chancellor.

As a student, McNair had already contributed so much to Aggieland and continued to do so for the rest of his life.

In 1978, McNair, one of the first African-American astronauts, was selected as a mission specialist astronaut for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Space Shuttle Program. His first flight was completed Feb. 11, 1984. Two years later, he was aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger for his second mission when it experienced fatal malfunctions upon takeoff. He died along with six other crew members on Jan. 28, 1986.