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Raynor, Harold

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Harold Raynor had shipped as a cabin boy on his grandfather's whaling schooner at the age of 11. In adulthood he left the sea to be involved in the new ocean of aviation. He was made chief of North American's B-25 factory in Kansas City during World War II when they were in trouble and couldn't meet production targets. Using the carrot instead of the stick, Raynor's positive management style quickly upped production past the production targets, and Kansas City, produced 6,608 of the fast bombers for the war effort. After the war, he became the number two at the North American missile division in Downey, California, overseeing construction of the mammoth Navaho cruise missile and the smaller Hound Dog. When North American sent Harrison Storms to take over the plant and transform it into a space division, Raynor continued as the reliable number two. Under his leadership the Apollo manned spacecraft was taken through the crucial first 18 months of design and development. Against Storms' enormous objections, he announced in the summer of 1963 that he would retire to his boats in Long Island. Storms finally persuaded him to stay with the company, but at the less-stressful job of North American representative at Grumman, the Apollo lunar module builder, on Long Island. Raynor's departure party at the Tahitian Village was legendary.