George Barry Graves, Jr.

George Barry Graves, Jr. (Barry), of Atlanta and formerly of Newport News, Virginia, passed away Thursday, June 28, 2018 at the age of 93. Born March 30, 1925, Barry was the son of the late George B. Graves and Jacque Pybas Graves.

Barry grew up in Trenton, TN and graduated from Peabody High School. He then graduated from Auburn University with a B.S. in Electrical Engineering and later earned a Master’s degree from the Sloan Management School at MIT. Barry had a long and successful career at NASA. During Project Mercury, he was Project Manager for Tracking and Ground Systems - a world-wide network of 18 stations that monitored the spacecraft during its flight. He was appointed Assistant Director of Information and Control Systems at Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston in 1962, and received NASA’s Outstanding Leadership Medal in 1963. He was named Director of Electronics at Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia in 1970. He enjoyed flying light planes and spending time in his workshop, which was always filled with items to be fixed and computers to be built or modified.

Barry is survived by his wife of 71 years, Mary Vick Graves, and his children: Catherine Henderson, Kenneth Graves and his wife, Iryna Graves, and Laura Graves and her husband, Gary Powell. He is also survived by 4 grandchildren and 3 great-grandchildren.

The family requests that charitable donations be made to IEEE Foundation’s Empower a Billion Lives (billionlives@ieee.org or call 732-562-5316) in lieu of flowers.

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