Alfred P. "Al" Alibrando, 82, a retired public information officer with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration - July 1, 2005

Mr. Alibrando was born in Columbus, Ohio. After graduating from high school, he enlisted in the Navy and served during World War II as an aviation radioman aboard the aircraft carrier USS Lexington. He retired from the U.S. Naval Reserve as a lieutenant.


He received a bachelor's degree from Ohio State University in 1948 and began work on the copy desk of the Indianapolis Times. He was a sports editor for the Xenia Gazette and also worked for the Columbus Citizen, the Washington Evening Star and Aviation Week Magazine, before joining NASA in 1960.

He began his work at NASA as a public information officer assigned to manned space flight and lunar and planetary programs, an assignment that included the first manned landing on the moon in 1969. During the joint Apollo-Soyuz manned space flight in 1975, he was NASA's contact with the Soviet public information staff. He left NASA in 1975 as deputy assistant administrator of public affairs.

Mr. Alibrando moved to the newly formed Energy Research and Development Administration as director of public information. That agency was absorbed into the Department of Energy in 1977; he stayed with DOE until his retirement in 1979. He then joined Kerr-McGee Corp. in Oklahoma City as director of corporate communications, retiring again in 1981.

Attribution: Washington Post

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