Leroy F. Thoreson was born August 4, 1927 to Olaf and Anne Nielson Doebok Nelson Thoreson. He served in the Army Air Force for  three years, including part of WWII and was sent to electronics school for a year. He was awarded the Victory Medal. 

After WWII Leroy was a civilian employee of the Army Air Force in the field of electronics in Wisconsin, including John Oster Manufacturing Company in Racine. In later years Leroy was a technician for NASA’s first man on the moon project. At age 42 he was offered a job at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. While working for NASA one project he worked on was the third Columbia space shuttle flight. He was presented the flag flown aboard the Columbia as it completed 130 revolutions of the earth and traveled 3.4 million miles. The flag was presented to him in recognition of the significant contribution he made to the success of the mission.

Leroy passed away on September 7, 1987 and is buried in St. Mary’s of the Mills Cemetery in Laurel, Maryland.

Plot: 3      Side: West       Row from Bottom: 4

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