NASA Chief, General Charles Bolden, to Speak at Annual MLK Breakfast
January 6, 2011
CHARLESTON, SC – January 6, 2011 – The 11th Annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Business and Professional Breakfast will be held on Tuesday, January 18, 2011 at 7:30 am in the Exhibition Hall of the Gaillard Auditorium. The Breakfast, an annual event sponsored by The YWCA of Greater Charleston, Inc. and the City of Charleston Inc., is a special opportunity for the business and professional leadership of Charleston to come together and honor the memory and teachings of Dr. King.
The featured speaker for this breakfast will be General Charles Bolden, Jr. (USMC, Ret.), Chief Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Nominated by President Barack Obama and confirmed by the U.S. Senate, retired Marine Corps Maj. Gen. Charles Frank Bolden, Jr., began his duties as the twelfth Administrator for NASA on July 17, 2009.
Mayor Joseph P. Riley, Jr. said, “We are so honored to have General Bolden join us as a speaker for the MLK Breakfast. He embodies the drive, ambition, achievement and dedication that Dr. King spoke of and is a remarkable role model for every American.”
As Administrator, he leads the NASA team and manages its resources to advance the agency’s missions and goals. Bolden’s confirmation marked the beginning of his second stint with the nation’s space agency. His 34-year career with the Marine Corps included 14 years as a member of NASA’s Astronaut Office. After joining the office in 1980, he traveled to orbit four times aboard the space shuttle between 1986 and 1994, commanding two of the missions. His flights included deployment of the Hubble Space Telescope and the first joint U.S.-Russian shuttle mission, which featured a cosmonaut as a member of his crew. Prior to Bolden’s nomination for the NASA Administrator’s job, he was employed as the Chief Executive Officer of JACKandPANTHER LLC, a small business enterprise providing leadership, military and aerospace consulting, and motivational speaking.
A resident of Houston, Bolden was born Aug. 19, 1946, in Columbia, S.C. He graduated from C. A. Johnson High School in 1964 and received an appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy. Bolden earned a B.S. in electrical science in 1968 and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Marine Corps. After Flight training in 1970, he became a naval aviator.
Bolden flew more than 100 combat missions in North and South Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, while stationed in Namphong, Thailand, from 1972-1973.
After returning to the U.S., Bolden served in a variety of positions in the Marine Corps in California and earned a M.S. in systems management from the University of Southern California, 1977.
Following graduation, he was assigned to the Naval Test Pilot School at Patuxent River, Md., completing training in 1979. While working at the Naval Air Test Center’s Systems Engineering and Strike Aircraft Test Directorates, he tested ground attack aircraft until his selection as an astronaut candidate in 1980. Bolden’s NASA astronaut career included technical assignments as the Astronaut Office Safety Officer; Technical Assistant to the director of Flight Crew Operations; Special Assistant to the Director of the Johnson Space Center; Chief of the Safety Division at Johnson (overseeing safety efforts for the return to flight after the 1986 Challenger accident); lead astronaut for vehicle test and checkout at the Kennedy Space Center; and Assistant Deputy Administrator at NASA Headquarters. After his final space shuttle flight in 1994, he left the agency to return to active duty in the Marine Corps as the Deputy Commandant of Midshipmen at the U.S. Naval Academy. Bolden was assigned as Deputy Commanding General of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force in the Pacific in 1997.
During the first half of 1998, he served as Commanding General of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force Forward in support of Operation Desert Thunder in Kuwait. Bolden was promoted to his final rank of Major General in July 1998 and named Deputy Commander of U.S. Forces in Japan. He later served as the Commanding General of the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego, Calif., from 2000 until 2002, before retiring from the Marine Corps in 2003. Bolden’s military decorations include the Defense Superior Service Medal, the Distinguished Flying Cross and was inducted into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame in May 2006. Bolden is married to the former Alexis (Jackie) Walker of Columbia, S.C. The couple has two children.
Ticket prices for the event are $25.00 per person, or reserve a table: Bright Light Small Business Sponsors @ $500 per reserved table or Peace sponsors @ $ 1,250 or Freedom Sponsors @ $2500 or Dream Sponsors @ $5,000. Companies can also reserve a seat at their table for a student or purchase a seat for $15.00 for a student. Checks can be made payable to YWCA of Greater Charleston, Inc., 106 Coming Street, Chas. SC, .29403 or call (843)722-1644 for info.
