Robert Lee Tanner (1929 - 2006)

Born 6 Jun 1929 in Washington, DC, USA

Ancestors

Husband of Margaret Faith (Zimmer) Tanner — married 1960 in All Souls Church, Washington, DC, USA

Died 27 Apr 2006 at age 76 in Tioga, PA, USA

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Meredith Tanner [send private message]

Biography

Robert was born in 1929. He was the son of Olyn Tanner and Mary DeVaughn. As he described them, his parents "drank and fought and drank and fought and drank and fought, and neither of them was a damned bit of good to anyone." His father died of tuberculosis when he was young, after which his mother supported herself by, as he put it, "having boyfriends."

As he told it, at the age of 14 (questionable; Amazing Stories Magazine, June 1945, p. 193 includes a letter to the editor showing him still living on 8th St. in Washington DC; he would have just turned 15) he ran away from home and found his way to Indiana, where he introduced himself to his favorite science fiction author, Richard S. Shaver. Shaver was a schizophrenic who believed that the Earth was hollow and that the interior was inhabited by superhumans who could control people on the surface using some sort of dream ray. He mentored my father as a writer, enabling my father to publish several science fiction stories and science fact articles in pulp magazines such as "Amazing Stories" before he turned 20. Unfortunately, he wrote his fiction under pseudonyms that he never revealed to anyone. Among references I've discovered are:

• "Immortality No Longer a Myth?" by Robert L. Tanner (Amazing Stories Magazine, Nov. 1946, p. 155) (Age 16!)

Consumed by a passion for the idea of space travel, he returned to Washington, DC when he was about 20 and put himself through college by working at the Royal typewriter factory. He got a BS and at least one MS from George Washington University. While he was in college he met the jazz guitarist Charlie Byrd and struck up a lifelong friendship. He also sang with the Washington Men's Choir, and performed in several operas, even headlining a few times.

After college he got a job with the Naval Research Laboratory programming computers for the Vanguard Project, which put the first American satellite into space. He migrated with the space program over to NASA once it was created and remained there his entire career, doing a wide variety of jobs. He was involved with every major NASA mission from Gemini to the Space Shuttle, including many lesser-known projects including:

• Project Coordinator for Cometary Explorer, a mission to intercept comets Grigg-Skjellerup and Giacobini-Zinner (NASA TM-X-70561, page v, November 1971)
• Administrative/Report support for the Outlook for Space Study Group (N76-18004, page A-1, 1976)

He was introduced to his future wife Margaret by his mother, who met her in a department store where she was modeling designer dresses. On their first date she became violently ill and vomited into his lap, but he had already decided she was the woman he was going to marry, and not long afterward they had a secular wedding at All Souls Unitarian Church in Washington, DC. They had two children for whom they had high hopes, but instead they wound up with musicians.

He knew several of the original astronauts, and brought a couple of them (Al Worden and Joe Kerwin) home to dinner for me (his daughter) to interview for school papers. Until the day he died he remained a true believer in the imperative for mankind to go into space, and would tear up as he reminded us, "We went to the MOON! THE MOON!"

He developed Multiple Sclerosis in his 30s, but it wasn't diagnosed for another 20 years. A few years later he became too disabled to work, but he retired in 1991 with 37 years of service for NASA under his belt and the knowledge that he'd been a part of possibly the most important endeavor in the history of mankind.

Suffering from severe depression and alcoholism, he had a fairly miserable retirement, though he did entertain himself occasionally by contacting people who had reported UFO sightings to grill them about their experiences. He went to his grave believing that extraterrestrial beings had already come to Earth, and that many people had met and interacted with them. When asked why such advanced beings would bother to travel such a long way to kidnap rednecks and probe their anal cavities, he would reply, "Exactly! WHY? That's the question!"

He moved to rural Pennsylvania with his wife a few years after he retired, and enjoyed spending time in the orchard behind the house, overlooking the Tioga River. He had a series of strokes, from which he always recovered, but eventually developed pneumonia and chose to refuse a ventilator on the grounds that he'd "had a good run." He passed away in 2006.

Sources

• "United States Census, 1930," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/CJ1P-TPZ : accessed 20 October 2015), Robert Lee Tanner in household of Olyn Tanner, Alexandria, Alexandria (Independent City), Virginia, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 0010, sheet 2B, family 42, line 67, NARA microfilm publication T626 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2002), roll 2466; FHL microfilm 2,342,200.

• Goddard News, June 1991 - Retirement Notices (http://gewa.gsfc.nasa.gov/clubs/groc/archive/June%20page%207.pdf)

• System Definition for Cometary Explorer, NASA 1971 (http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19740007391.pdf)

• Outlook for Space, Report to the NASA Administrator by the Outlook for Space Study Group (http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19760010916.pdf)

• The Legacy of Vanguard, c. 1983, Naval Research Laboratory web page.

• "United States Public Records, 1970-2009," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:2QL4-5MM : accessed 30 October 2015), Robert L Tanner, Residence, Lawrenceville, Pennsylvania, United States; a third party aggregator of publicly available information.

• "United States Public Records, 1970-2009," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QJCP-PJ6B : accessed 30 October 2015), Robert L Tanner, Residence, Lawrenceville, Pennsylvania, United States; a third party aggregator of publicly available information.

• "United States Social Security Death Index," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:J5VZ-KQ7 : accessed 20 October 2015), Robert L Tanner, 27 Apr 2006; citing U.S. Social Security Administration, Death Master File, database (Alexandria, Virginia: National Technical Information Service, ongoing).