
Apollo 8 pilot who was among the first people to travel from Earth to the Moon.
He was selected to join the Apollo 8 crew after one of the original astronauts had to drop out due to sickness.
On Christmas Eve, 1968, he read a passage to his crew from the Book of Genesis while orbiting around the Moon.
He married Valerie Hoard in 1955, and together they had four sons and two daughters.
He and Edgar D. Mitchell were two of 24 people to reach the moon in the 50 years since the first landing.