General John R. Dailey
Commission Chair
Director of the National
Air and Space Museum
John R. (Jack) Dailey, retired United States Marine
Corps general and pilot, assumed the duties of director of
the National Air and Space Museum in January 2000. General
Dailey comes to the Museum from the National Aeronautics
and Space Administration (NASA), where he had been the
Associate Deputy Administrator since retiring from the
United States Marine Corps in 1992. At NASA, he led the
Agency's reinvention activities.
His career in the Marine Corps spanned thirty-six years and included
extensive command and staff experience. He has flown over 6,000
hours in a wide variety of aircraft and helicopters. During two
tours in Vietnam, he flew 450 missions. He was promoted to the rank
of general and named Assistant Commandant of the Marine Corps in
1990. He has numerous personal decorations for his service in the
Marine Corps and NASA.
While at NASA, General Dailey served on the President's Management
Council, co-chaired the Aeronautics and Astronautics Coordinating
Board, and was a national delegate to the Research and Technology
Organization supporting NATO. He also serves as national commander
of the Marine Corps Aviation Association and is a member of the
Early and Pioneer Naval Aviators Association ("Golden Eagles").
General Dailey will lead the effort to open a 710,000-square-foot-facility
at Washington Dulles International Airport, which will display more
than 180 aircraft and 100 spacecraft currently in storage.
The National Air and Space Museum, which opened in 1976, is home
to many of the "firsts" in aviation and space history, including
the Wright brothers' Flyer, the Spirit of St. Louis, and
the Apollo 11 command module Columbia. With nearly 10 million
visitors a year, it is the most popular museum in the world.
General Dailey was born on February 17, 1934, in Quantico, Virginia,
and earned his bachelor of science degree at the University of California,
Los Angeles, in 1956. He and his wife, the former Mimi Rodian of
Copenhagen, Denmark, live in Fairfax, Virginia. They have two grown
children, Lisa Bader and Nils Dailey.