9781422283301

Carruthers was born on October 1, 1939, in Cincinnati, Ohio. His father, George Carruthers, Sr., was a civil engi- neer who served in the US Army Air Corps. His mother, Sophia, was a homemaker. From an early age, Carruthers, the oldest of four siblings, loved science. An avid builder of model rockets and reader of science fiction, he created his own telescope when he was ten, using lenses he ordered from a catalog and a cardboard tube. He paid for his catalog order with wages he had earned as a delivery boy. When Carruthers was just twelve years old, his fa- ther died suddenly. Sophia and her children moved back to her native Chicago and she found work with the US Postal Service. Carruthers attended Chicago’s Englewood High School, and became one of the few African-American students competing in local science fairs during that era. Although he was said to be only an average student, he took home multiple prizes over the years, including one for another homemade telescope. He spent much of his spare time reading about astronomy in the local library, and he was particularly fond of visiting Chicago’s Adler Planetarium , the oldest in the nation. After graduating from high school in 1957, Carruthers entered the University of Illinois, where he majored in physics and focused on aerospace engineering and astron- omy. After earning a bachelor’s degree in 1961, Carruthers remained at the school to earn a master’s degree in nuclear engineering in 1962 and a doctoral degree in aeronautical engineering in 1964.

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Black Achievement in Science: Space