William Anders

William Alison "Bill" Anders (born October 17, 1933), (Maj Gen, USAFR, Ret.), is a former United States Air Force officer, nuclear engineer, NASA astronaut, and businessman. He is, along with Apollo 8 crewmates Frank Borman and Jim Lovell, one of the first three persons to have left Earth orbit and traveled to the Moon (of only 24 people to date).

Early life

Anders was born to U.S. Navy Lt. Arthur F. Anders and Muriel Adams Anders in Hong Kong on October 17, 1933, and was active in the Boy Scouts of America where he achieved its second-highest rank, Life Scout. Anders attended St. Martin's Academy and Grossmont High School in La Mesa, California. He was born and raised Catholic.

He received a Bachelor of Science degree from the United States Naval Academy in 1955, and a Master of Science degree in Nuclear Engineering from the U.S. Air Force Institute of Technology at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, in 1962. Anders completed the Harvard Business School's Advanced Management Program in 1979.