George Alcorn
*George Alcorn was born on this date in 1940. He is a Black physicist and inventor. George Edward Alcorn is the son of George and Arletta Dixon Alcorn in Indianapolis, Indiana.
His father was an auto mechanic who sacrificed so Alcorn and his brother could get an education. Alcorn attended Occidental College in Pasadena, California, where he maintained an excellent academic record while earning eight letters in baseball and football.
Alcorn received a four-year academic scholarship to Occidental College in Los Angeles, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Physics. He received his degree with honors while earning eight letters in basketball and football. Alcorn earned a Master of Science in Nuclear Physics in 1963 from Howard University after nine months of study. During the summers of 1962 and 1963, he worked as a research engineer for the Space Division of North American Rockwell.
He was involved with the computer analysis of launch trajectories and orbital mechanics for Rockwell missiles, including Titan I and II, Saturn, and the Nova, who worked primarily for IBM and NASA. He was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2015.
