2022The 50th Anniversary of the Apollo 17 - Eugene Andrew Cernan - First Day Cover

The American astronaut, Eugene Andrew Cernan, was born on 14th March 1934 in Chicago, where he grew up together with his parents, Andrew G. Cernan and Rose A. Cihlar and his sister Dolores Ann. His grandparents, on his father’s side, emigrated to the USA from the municipality of Vysoká nad Kysucou in 1903. His mother was of Czech ancestry. After he completed his secondary school studies, he joined Purdue University in Lafayette (Indiana). He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering in 1956. In May 1961, he married Barbara J. Atchley and in June of the same year he began to attend the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey (California), from where he received a degree in aeronautical engineering in January 1964. He became a father in March 1963, when his daughter, Teresa “Tracy” Dawn, was born. Along with thirteen other candidates, he was selected to become a NASA astronaut on 17th October 1963.