Qian Xuesen

Qian Xuesen, who died Oct. 31 at 98, didn’t like being called the father of China’s guided-missile program: he felt that the title didn’t give credit to his fellow researchers. Indeed, while the Chinese-born, U.S.-educated rocket scientist was technically brilliant, he also realized that legions of bright thinkers can do far more than one genius ever could. A co-founder of what became Caltech’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Qian helped debrief German rocket scientists following World War II, but he was accused of being a Communist spy at the height of the McCarthy era and put under house arrest. He and his family returned to China in exchange for U.S. pilots captured during the Korean War. In China, Qian used his skills to promote and organize scientific bodies as well as develop the missile programs that laid the groundwork for China’s first manned space mission in 2003. But he remained bitter over his treatment by the U.S. “It was the stupidest thing this country ever did,” said former Navy Secretary Dan Kimball, according to Iris Chang’s 1995 biography of Qian. “He was no more a Communist than I was–and we forced him to go.”