“Remembering Allan McDonald: He Refused To Approve Challenger Launch”

Ever be The Cheese That Stands Alone?? I have. It’s rough, but it is worth it.

Remembering Allan McDonald: He Refused To Approve Challenger Launch, Exposed Cover-Up, by Howard Berkes via NPR.org

His job was to sign and submit an official form. Sign the form, he believed, and he'd risk the lives of the seven astronauts set to board the spacecraft the next morning. Refuse to sign, and he'd risk his job, his career and the good life he'd built for his wife and four children.

"And I made the smartest decision I ever made in my lifetime," McDonald told me. "I refused to sign it. I just thought we were taking risks we shouldn't be taking."…

In retirement, McDonald became a fierce advocate of ethical decision-making and spoke to hundreds of engineering students, engineers and managers. He and Chapman University's Maier held leadership and ethics seminars for corporations and government agencies, including U.S. Space Command.

Maier says that one of McDonald's key moments in his talks helps explain his ability to reconcile his brush with history.

"What we should remember about Al McDonald [is] he would often stress his laws of the seven R's," Maier says. "It was always, always do the right thing for the right reason at the right time with the right people. [And] you will have no regrets for the rest of your life."