On January 28th, 1986, Ronald McNair passed away at age 35. McNair was a physicist, a professional saxophone player, and an astronaut, having flown on missions aboard the Space Shuttles Challenger and Discovery. Rated on NASA's Astronaut Man-Systems Integration Panel, he was the second African American in space. Born in 1950, Ronald E. McNair was raised in Lake City, South Carolina. He earned his bachelor's and doctoral degrees in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. McNair's record setting dive of over 700 feet to survey coral reefs as part of his doctoral research was featured in the National Geographic Society’s National Geographic magazine. Along with his dedication to science and engineering, McNair was passionate about music. In his teenage years, he became proficient in several musical instruments, including the piano, flute, organ, clarinet and saxophone. He often combined his two passions of music and science, developing a robotic "fingertip" that could play a wind instrument. McNair was the first astronaut from the Sea Education Association in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. He was posthumously awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor in 2004. He is survived by his wife Cheryl and two young sons, Reginald and Ronald.