Oscar Edward Anderson

Jul 3, 1918 - Apr 14, 1976

Dr. Oscar Anderson, 57, senior official in the international affairs office of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Washington D.C., died Wednesday of a heart attack. An established historian, he joined NASA in 1962. Dr. Anderson was named director of the international program policy division of NASA in 1964. He played a key role in developing space cooperation with the Soviet Union. This resulted in the successful Apollo-Soyuz joint docking mission in July, 1975. For his contributions to the program between the two nations, Dr. Anderson received both the Superior Performance Award and the Exceptional Service Medal of NASA.

He first came to Washington, D.C. in 1958 to join the history staff of the Atomic Energy Commission. There he helped establish the agency's History Association. He was co-author of the first volume of the AEC's official history, "'The New World, 1939-1946," which described the wartime origins of atomic energy research and development in this country. He received the AEC Outstanding Service Award for this work.

Born in South Bend, Ind., Dr. Anderson graduated from Oberlin College, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He earned a master's degree in history from Harvard University 1941. He then entered the U.S. Army Air Corps and was an intelligence officer during the war at headquarters of the 6th Bomber Command in the Panama Canal Zone.

Dr. Anderson wrote a history of the command. He left the service in 1946 to return to Harvard University where he earned a doctorate in 1948. For the next 10 years, he was assistant and then associate professor of history at the University of Cincinnati. He was among the first American historians to describe the role of science and technology in American life.

He is survived by his wife, Dorothy; a daughter, Jessica A. Botsford of Buffalo, N.Y.; a brother, Dr. Robert U. Anderson of Washington C.H. Ohio; and one sister, Elizabeth A. Stanz of South Bend

Sources: Ancestry.com and Newspapers.com

06/28/2025 EJS