Mr. Thomas G. Pownall

Thomas G. Pownall was born January 30, 1922 in Cumberland, Maryland and graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1946. Following his discharge from active naval service in 1953, he began his 35-year career in provate industry which culminated in 1983 as the Chairman of the Martin Marietta Corportation.

In 1977, Mr. Pownall was selected a President and Chief Operating Officer of Martin Marietta and provided the managerial guidance for the design, development, and production of several major ordnance systems for the United states Army; the Pershing II Intermediate Range Nuclear Missile, the Target Aquisition Designation Sight and the Pilot Night Vision Sensor (TADS/PNVS), and Martin Marietta's Air Defense Anti-Tank System (ADATS).

Mr. Pownall's leadership enabled Martin Marietta to successfully develop and field the Pershing II system. Despite serious political opposition to the deployment of the missile system in Europe, he devoted great effort to ensure the missile system was fully reliable and mission capable leading to its successful deployment in Western Europe.

Under Mr. Pownall's supervision, Martin Marietta developed the TADS/PNVS for the Apache attack helicopter significantly enhancing the maneuverability and lethality capability of the Army's aviation assets during nighttime. The TADS/PNVS provided pilots with detailed imagery allowing them to navigate safely at night, in addition to a reliable search, detection, and recognition system.

In December 1987, the United States Army selected Martin Marietta's ADATS system over three other systems in an international competitiion. The ADATS system filled the Army's requirement for the service's Forward Area Air Defense System.

Mr. Pownall retired from Martin Marietta in 1987 and remained on the Board of Directors until 1991.

Mr. Pownall died on June 24, 2005.