Obituary for Captain (Retired) Jon Andrew McBride
August 14, 1943 – August 7, 2024
Captain Jon A. McBride, astronaut, aviator, and naval officer, has gone to join our savior and his family in heaven after a heroic battle with Alzheimer’s Disease and cancer. Known throughout his life as Big Jon, Captain, Orbit, J1, Papa Jon, and Dad, he passed away just one week shy of flying 81 revolutions around the sun.
Big Jon was born in Charleston, West Virginia and grew up in Beckley, where he attended Woodrow Wilson High School. He always considered West Virginia “almost heaven” and was proud to be a native “West-by-God” Virginian. He became interested in flying because the mountaintop he grew up on was across from the Charleston Airport where, as a 3 year old, he played with toy airplanes as he watched the real ones soar overhead, dreaming that one day he would pilot his own aircraft. So when a Navy recruiter came to West Virginia University, took him up in a plane and told him the Navy would teach him to fly, he signed up on the spot, graduating in 1971 with a degree in Aeronautical Engineering at the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School.
The Navy kept its promise that he would fly. After earning his wings as a naval aviator, Big Jon logged more than 9000 hours of flying time — including 4,700 hours in jet aircraft. He served in Fighter Squadrons 101, 41, 11, and 103. After flying 64 combat missions, Big Jon attended the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School and served as maintenance officer and Sidewinder project officer. Throughout his aviation career, he piloted over 40 different types of military and civilian aircraft, including the Navy “Spirit of ‘76” bicentennial-painted F-4J Phantom from 1976-1978.
Big Jon’s ultimate piloting experience was flying the Space Shuttle Challenger during STS-41G from October 5-13, 1984. Big Jon joined six other members of the STS-41G mission, rounding out the first crew of seven and the first flight with two women astronauts. During their eight day mission, crew members deployed the Earth Radiation Budget Satellite, conducted scientific observations of the earth with the OSTA-3 pallet and Large Format Camera, and demonstrated potential satellite refueling with an EVA and associated hydrazine transfer.
In addition to piloting STS-41G, Big Jon served as the lead chase pilot for Columbia’s maiden voyage, software verification in the Shuttle Avionics Integration Laboratory (SAIL), capsule communicator (CAPCOM) for STS-5, STS-6, and STS-7, Flight Data File (FDF) Manager, and orbital rendezvous procedures development.
Big Jon was scheduled to fly next in March 1986, as the commander of STS 61-E crew, but it was deferred due to the Challenger accident in January 1986. On July 30, 1987, he was assigned under President Reagan to NASA Headquarters to serve as Assistant Administrator for Congressional Relations. In 1988, Big Jon was named to command the crew of the STS-35 (ASTRO-1) mission, scheduled for launch in March 1990, but he retired from NASA and the Navy in 1989.
Aside from flight in all its forms, Big Jon’s other passion was education. For twenty years, he worked at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex (KSCVC), establishing and coordinating the Astronaut Encounter programs, scheduling astronauts and VIPs, and growing the visitor center complex. When NASA retired the shuttle program, he was instrumental in securing the Space Shuttle Atlantis’ final home in Florida and designing its exhibits. He remarked that while the Navy and NASA were the most exciting part of his career, “sharing space” through education was the most meaningful part of his career.
Retiring from NASA gave him time to inspire the next generation of space explorers. As an astronaut “on duty” at the KSCVC and in visits to schools both in the United States and abroad, he spoke to thousands of schoolchildren, encouraging them to “stay in school, keep away from drugs, and listen to your parents.” In Big Jon’s many visits to Japan, he would say “Benkyō, Benkyō, Benkyō” (study, study, study). He was recently overjoyed to hear about Ireland’s first astronaut candidates. He served as the U.S. president of the Association of Space Explorers and was on the board for the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation.
In addition to his passion for space exploration, Big Jon had many other interests. He was a foodie and a scrapbooker before “foodie” and “scrapbooker” were words. In scrapbooks he created of his travels, he often kept copies of menus of restaurants he visited as well as notes about the cuisine. His other favorite activities and pastimes included golf, numismatics, racquetball, softball, basketball, track & field, gardening, and of course, flying. He enjoyed socializing with his squadrons and visiting with his Phi Delta Theta fraternity brothers. He and some of his fraternity brothers at WVU briefly held the Guinness World Record time for piano smashing – look it up.
Big Jon is preceded in death by his parents, William and Catherine Byus; his sisters Elizabeth “Betty” Cook, Mary Esther Couch, and Doris Dressler; his brother William “Cudge” McBride; his son Richard McBride; and his grandson Ryan Kerr.
He is survived by his sister, Margaret Lynn; daughter, Melissa DeGuibert and her husband Mike; his son, Jon McBride II and his wife Christie; his other daughter Lynn Miller and her husband Brad; his grandchildren, Collin Kerr, and wife Lydia; Austin Kerr and wife Keeley; Kendall Kerr, Catherine McBride, Megan Miller, Richard Miller, Bailey Miller; his great-grandsons Kieran and Kayson Kerr, and many cousins, nephews, nieces, and cherished friends.
The family appreciates the outpouring of love and support and will share service and memorial information as soon as possible.
While John Denver sang that West Virginia was “almost heaven,” Big Jon, having once again escaped gravity, lives now in actual heaven where we are sure there is an infinite supply of cherry pie, Guinness, and sushi.
We were always amazed but rarely surprised by the things he could accomplish. His final prayer request was for world peace. His final words were “Oh, boy!” as he watched a Kennedy Space Center rocket launch from his window.
