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Isaac T. Gillam, IV, was Director of the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center, June 18, 1978 to October 1, 1981.
Mr. Gillam had served as the Acting Director of Dryden since November 1977 and was named Deputy Director in August 1977. On May 23, 1976 he had been named Director of Shuttle Operations for the Approach and Landing Tests (ALT) of the Space Shuttle then underway at Dryden.

Prior to coming to Dryden in 1976, Gillam was Program Manager of Small Launch Vehicles at NASA Headquarters. He first joined NASA in 1963 after a 10-year tour of duty in the U.S. Air Force as a pilot during the Korean conflict and then as missile launch crew commander for the Strategic Air Command.

Gillam earned a bachelor degree in mathematics from Howard University, Washington, DC, in the early 1950s. He also pursued graduate work at Tennessee State University, Nashville, Tennessee, while assigned as Assistant Professor of Air Science. In 1981 Gillam was honored by Howard for distinguished post-graduate achievement in science and engineering.

Gillam is a Fellow of the American Astronautical Society, and Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, a member of the Air Force Association, the National Defense Preparedness Association and the American Management Association.

Among numerous other awards, he has received NASA’s highest award, the Distinguished Service Medal, for his work on the Launch Vehicle Program, and the Exceptional Service Medal, for his outstanding leadership in support of the Space Shuttle program.