William David Compton

William David Compton was born in De Leon, Texas (1927), and received B.S. and M.S. degrees from North Texas State University and the Ph.D. from the University of Texas (Austin). His academic training was in science, and he taught at West Texas State University and Colorado School of Mines before moving to Prescott, Arizona, to help establish a science program in a new liberal-arts college. After four years at Prescott, he was granted leave to study at Imperial College of Science and Technology, London, and received an M.Sc. in history of technology from the University of London in 1972. At Prescott College he inaugurated a program of liberal studies in science and technology. Upon completion of the Skylab history, he worked for an energy consultant firm in Houston and is presently under contract to NASA to write a history of Apollo's lunar exploration missions.

[from The Authors section of Living and Working in Space, published 1983]