Clark, John Drury

Pioneering American propellant chemist, worked at the Naval Air Rocket Test Station from 1949-1970, witnessing the major period of development of liquid rocket propellants in the United States.

John D. Clark joined the Naval Air Rocket Test Station at Dover, New Jersey, in 1949. (It became the Liquid Rocket Propulsion Laboratory of Picatinny Arsenal in 1960.) He retired in 1970, after having been in charge of liquid propellant development for most of the twenty-one years. A native of Alaska, Dr. Clark attended the University of Alaska and received the B.S. from the California Institute of Technology, the M.S. from the University of Wisconsin, and, in 1934, the Ph.D. from Stanford University. He worked as a chemist in several industries prior to his association with NARTS. A great deal of Dr. Clark's writing was in the form of government reports which were classified, but he also contributed scientific articles and papers in the open literature and, as an avocation, written stories and articles for science fiction magazines. He published the most engaging history of rocket propellant development in the United States, Ignition!, in 1973.