Born in West Philadelphia on November 22, 1942, Guion "Guy" Bluford, Jr. would become the first African American in space.

A graduate of Overbrook Senior High School, Bro. Bluford would go on to exemplify the cardinal principle of Scholarship. He would obtain a BS in aerospace engineering from Penn State University, a MS with distinction from the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) as well as a Doctor of Philosophy in aerospace engineering from AFIT.  Bro. Bluford would also obtain an MBA from the University of Houston.

Receiving his pilot wings in January of 1966 at Williams AFB, Bro. Bluford would later be assigned to the 557th Tactical Fighter Squadron based in Cam Ranh Bay, Vietnam.  During the Vietnam conflict, he would fly 144 combat missions with 65 of those mission being flown over North Vietnam.

After Vietnam, he would be assigned as a flight instructor for five years at Sheppard AFB in Texas.  It would be with the completion of his degrees from AFIT that Bro. Bluford would work as an engineer at the Air Force Flight Dynamics lab at Wright-Patterson AFB in Ohio.  This posting would lead to him becoming a NASA astronaut in August of 1979, following in the footsteps of another notable Omega Man and the first African American astronaut, Bro. Robert H. Lawrence.

A veteran of four space flights, Dr. Bluford would log over 688 hours in space.  he would fly on two space shuttles during his career, the Discovery and the ill fated Challenger months before its disastrous end that claimed the life of Bro. Ronald McNair. 

Col. Dr. Guion Bluford, Jr. retired from NASA and the Air Force in 1993, he is now a Vice President and General Manager for Federal Data Corporation in Maryland.

He was inducted into the International Space Hall of Fame in 1997.

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