Moon rock in Torgersen Hall.

Kraft Drive near central campus.

NASA documents and flight plans in Newman Library.

Today, Christopher Kraft’s influence permeates Virginia Tech’s Blacksburg campus.

Kraft '44, NASA’s first flight director and a pioneer who led multiple space missions, passed away this week in Houston at 95 years old.

Across the nation, he is remembered as the face of NASA and father of the mission control center, which he created to communicate with spacecraft in orbit. At Virginia Tech, he is known as a generous alumnus who served and gave back to his alma mater in countless ways.

“Chris Kraft’s spirit and accomplishments are an inspiration to all of us, and we have great appreciation for his service to humanity, our nation, and our university,” said Virginia Tech President Tim Sands. “We’re proud of Virginia Tech’s role in developing his capacity for remarkable leadership and vision.”

Kraft grew up in a small town, Phoebus, Virginia (now Hampton, Virginia), and enrolled at Virginia Tech in the midst of World War II. He joined the Corps of Cadets and eventually became captain. As part of a VT Stories oral history project, Kraft recalled marching everywhere on campus and in parades as a Corps member.

“I think it had a great deal to do with shaping my willingness to be a leader with people,” he said.

A hand injury from a burn as a child made him unfit to join the military, and as a result, he was one of few Hokies who remained in school during the war.

Kraft took an engineering course that sparked his interest in aeronautics. He recalled learning about the job of an aeronautical engineer from engineering faculty who visited his class to discuss different departments in the college.

“I was fascinated by that,” he said.

Kraft graduated with a bachelor’s degree in aeronautical engineering and soon after joined the Langley Aeronautical Laboratory of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), which was the precursor of NASA. In October 1958, he was one of the original members of the Space Task Group, the organization established to manage the Project Mercury. As NASA’s director of flight operations in the 1960s, he was instrumental in landing an astronaut on the moon.

Later in 1972, he was named director of the Johnson Space Center. Kraft retired in 1982, but his renown did not fade. NASA named its Building 30 Mission Control Center at the Johnson Space Center for Kraft — the Christopher C. Kraft, Jr., Mission Control Center.