This handsome gentleman was Dr. Karl Henize. Like many astronauts, he was from Ohio.

After joining NASA, in 1967, he logged 2,300 hours flying jets and 188 hours in space, working on projects like Spacelab-2 (the one with New Coke). That’s not too shabby, for a Cincinnati boy.

Dr. Henize taught Astronomy at Northwestern University, enjoyed personal computers, before everyone else had one, and stamp collecting, but don’t love him just for his big ol’ brain. He was extremely active and pursued everything from baseball to skin diving to mountain climbing. 

Not content to rest on his laurels as a brilliant scientist and astronaut, he died while attempting to climb Mount Everest, at the age of 67. We’ll always mourn the loss, but applaud that kind of lifelong gusto.