D Brainerd Holmes

Dyer Brainerd Holmes was born on May 24, 1921, in Brooklyn. He received a degree in electrical engineering from Cornell. After spending several years at Bell Labs and the Western Electric Company, Mr. Holmes joined RCA, which was heavily involved in military contracting. It was there that he helped oversee the development of the Ballistic Missile Early Warning System for the Air Force. A 1961 NASA news release announcing Mr. Holmes's hiring described him as "an industrial executive known for his ability to bring multimillion-dollar government projects in on time and within predictable costs." He resigned two years after he arrived, with NASA facing management tension and behind on its timeline for a moon launching. But the agency had also gained ground on the Soviets in the space race. In his brief tenure, Mr. Holmes pressed hard for Congress to increase financing for NASA and for the agency to streamline its management structure, improve internal communications and commit to the method it would use to reach the moon. After leaving NASA in 1963, Mr. Holmes became a top executive at Raytheon, the missile manufacturer, and was its president when it developed the Patriot missile in the 1970s. He also served as chairman of the Beech Aircraft Corporation after it was acquired by Raytheon in 1979. He is survived by his wife, the former Mary Margaret England Wilkes; two daughters from a previous marriage, Katherine Kobos and Dorothy Kather; a stepson, Scott Pierce Ledbetter Jr.; two stepdaughters, Baylor Ledbetter Stovall and Margaret Ledbetter Weaver; six grandchildren; five step-grandchildren; and seven great-grandchildren.